Chapter 65: Encountering the Human-Faced Spider-1
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 65: Encountering the Human-Faced Spider-1
Step. Step.
Having passed through the gateway, Sun-woo walked down a dark passage.
The tunnel leading to the Godok Hall was incredibly damp and humid. To make matters worse, it was so dark that he couldn't see an inch in front of him. He felt like conjuring Samadhi True Fire to light the way, but he didn't want to waste internal energy unnecessarily.
Sun-woo moved cautiously, feeling along the walls as he navigated the passage.
After some time, a faint light began to leak from the far end.
The exit.
Sun-woo quickened his pace. As the light drew closer, his steps grew faster. However, as he approached the exit, a foul stench began to prick the tip of his nose.
'What is this?'
Sun-woo pinched his nose and frowned. What on earth was that smell?
Upon reaching the exit, he finally discovered the source. The first thing that caught his eye was the green martial arts uniform unique to the Tang Clan. Next, he saw a body whose arms and legs had been brutally severed.
The face was contorted in an expression of extreme agony. Above that twisted face, a swarm of flies circled.
Buzz. Buzz.
It was a corpse. Someone’s body was rotting right in front of the exit.
Sun-woo grimaced at the sight. What kind of disaster was this right upon arrival? Who was this person lying dead at the entrance?
'Could it be Tang Jeong?'
He examined the man's face closely just in case, but it wasn't the eldest young master, Tang Jeong. He searched his memory to see if it was another candidate for the position of Young Clan Head, but not a single one of them looked like the man before him.
Sun-woo stepped closer to search the man's robes.
"Ugh."
He felt a repulsive poisonous qi. It seemed the man had succumbed to some form of poison arts. Sun-woo circulated his Yin-Yang Harmony Divine Art to shield himself from the emanating toxins.
Rummage. Rummage.
He searched through the man's clothes, but nothing came out. Ultimately, Sun-woo gave up on identifying the corpse. There wasn't a single item to prove the man's identity.
'Wait, hold on.'
A thought suddenly flashed through Sun-woo's mind. Come to think of it, wasn't entry into the Godok Hall strictly limited to the candidates for Young Clan Head?
The dead man before him was not a candidate. Who was he, then? And why was he lying here in the Godok Hall, dead in such a gruesome state?
A flurry of questions began to pile up in his mind.
*
"Haa... haa..."
The Third Young Master, Tang Gi-mun, was running, gasping for breath. He was heading toward the South Gate of the Godok Hall, the same gate through which he had first entered.
He ran and ran, squeezing out every last drop of internal energy remaining in his body. He couldn't die like this. He had to report it—to the Clan Head and to everyone in the clan. He had to tell them what was happening inside the Godok Hall.
He ran until his mouth tasted of blood. After what felt like an eternity, he saw the dark passage leading to the South Gate.
There.
He had to get out through there. Tang Gi-mun dove into the passage and ran like a madman. He couldn't let them catch him.
Before long, the South Gate he had entered through came into view.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Open the door! Open the door!"
Tang Gi-mun began to pound on the iron door incessantly. He had to escape before they arrived. Despite his frantic pounding, the iron door remained unmoved.
"Open the damn door right now, you son of a bitch!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Driven by desperation, Tang Gi-mun began to scream profanities as he hammered on the door. The composed and dignified "Scholar of the Murim," as he was usually called, was nowhere to be found.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Creeeeeak.
As if answering his desperate plea, the iron door finally began to open.
'Hurry! Hurry!'
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Tang Gi-mun pounded even faster, praying for the door to open quickly.
Thud.
Finally, the door opened wide enough, and Tang Gi-mun burst outside.
Flop.
"Haa... haa... haa..."
Once outside, Tang Gi-mun collapsed, gasping for air. The sudden release of tension had drained the strength from his legs.
"Third Young Master?"
The man guarding the gate spoke to him, sounding bewildered. Tang Gi-mun lifted his head to look at the guard. The man stationed at the South Gate was Joo Man-gi, a close confidant of the Clan Head who was not of the Tang bloodline.
Tang Gi-mun felt a wave of relief. He was safe now.
"Young Master Tang Gi-mun, you have withdrawn from the contest."
"That's not what's important right now!"
"Then what is?"
Joo Man-gi looked at Tang Gi-mun as if he didn't understand.
"There are unidentified intruders inside the Godok Hall! They are slaughtering the candidates!" Tang Gi-mun shouted urgently.
Trembling with terror, he continued his story.
By a stroke of luck, the Third Young Master, Tang Gi-mun, had entered through the South Gate along with the Seventh Young Master, Tang Han-dang, and the Ninth Young Master, Tang Il-hoe, who shared the same mother. They had formed a temporary alliance, agreeing to cooperate until only the final three remained.
With their combined strength, they didn't even fear Tang Jeong, the strongest among the candidates. Believing they had secured a favorable position in the competition, they had been leisurely scouting the Godok Hall for other candidates.
That was when they encountered them.
The intruders were wearing the green martial arts uniforms characteristic of the Tang Clan. At first, thinking they were members of a branch family, Tang Gi-mun had scolded them harshly, asking how they dared to interfere in the sacred succession contest.
But the intruders only smiled silently, offering no response.
Infuriated by their attitude, the Ninth Young Master, Tang Il-hoe, had charged at them, his hands laden with poisonous qi. He intended to punish these insolent branch members who didn't know their place.
Tang Il-hoe unleashed a green Poison Palm at the man in the lead. The man took the hit directly. Seeing this, Tang Il-hoe rejoiced. No matter if they shared Tang blood, mere branch members couldn't possibly withstand his Poison Palm.
It didn't take long for him to realize how wrong he was.
The man, seemingly unaffected by Tang Il-hoe's poison, reached out and brushed aside the young master's arm. Then, he struck Tang Il-hoe's face with a palm stained a murky black.
The moment it touched him, Tang Il-hoe's face melted away, and he died instantly.
It was a Poison Palm—one that was fundamentally different from the green-tinted poison of the Tang Clan.
In an instant, the expressions of Tang Gi-mun and Tang Han-dang, who had been watching leisurely, turned pale with horror. A direct descendant, the Ninth Young Master, had been killed by that man's hand. And by a poison art they had never seen before.
Tang Gi-mun and Tang Han-dang realized then that these men were not from a branch family. There was no way a mere branch member could possess a poison art capable of melting a direct descendant—who possessed the world's greatest resistance to toxins—in a single move.
They were intruders. And they certainly hadn't broken into the Godok Hall with good intentions.
Making a split-second decision, Tang Gi-mun and Tang Han-dang turned and bolted toward the South Gate. They had to report the intrusion of an outside enemy.
During their frantic flight, Tang Han-dang tripped over a tree root. But Tang Gi-mun didn't even look back. If he stopped to help Han-dang, he would die too. He couldn't let that happen.
Even as Han-dang's screams echoed behind him, Tang Gi-mun ignored them, pushing his internal energy to its limit to run even faster. He was driven by the thought that at least one person had to survive to warn the clan about the intruders.
After running like a madman, he had finally reached the South Gate.
"...And that is what happened."
Tang Gi-mun finished explaining the events inside the Godok Hall to Joo Man-gi in detail. He wanted to report to the Clan Head immediately, but his legs were shaking so much they wouldn't obey him. Still, he managed to stagger to his feet. He had to tell them.
"Let's go, quickly!"
Tang Gi-mun grabbed Joo Man-gi's hand and tried to hurry him along. He wanted Joo Man-gi to escort him, as it might still be dangerous.
"You should go on ahead."
But Joo Man-gi spoke calmly, as if he didn't share Tang Gi-mun's urgency.
Suddenly, a chill ran down Tang Gi-mun's spine. A direct descendant of the Tang Clan had been killed by intruders. How could the man be so composed?
Tang Gi-mun slowly turned his head. There, he saw Joo Man-gi wearing a broad, beaming smile.
Tang Gi-mun tried to desperately circulate his internal energy.
Stab!
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
Tang Gi-mun screamed as a sudden, piercing pain erupted in his back. Before he could even gather his energy, his back had been skewered.
"You... you...!"
Tang Gi-mun gasped at Joo Man-gi, who had stabbed him. The man guarding the South Gate was in league with the bastards inside the Godok Hall.
"Cough... You... think... you'll... get away... with this...?"
Tang Gi-mun spat out blood, struggling to speak. Joo Man-gi had been a close aide to the Tang Clan Head for over twenty years. Impressed by his high martial arts prowess and steadfast loyalty, the Clan Head had trusted him enough to appoint him as an Elder, despite him not being of the bloodline.
And yet, he had cast aside that grace and committed this betrayal.
"It's fine. Soon, not even a foundation stone of the Tang Clan will remain."
Joo Man-gi grinned as he spoke. Finally, the moment he had been waiting for had arrived. The long years of endurance, crouching within the Tang Clan for twenty years, were finally coming to an end.
Crunch.
"Guh..."
Having finished his piece, Joo Man-gi twisted the blade, rupturing the young master's heart. Tang Gi-mun's body went limp. His breath had stopped.
The Third Young Master of the Sichuan Tang Clan—the greatest clan in the world—and a prominent candidate for the position of Young Clan Head, met his end at the hands of Joo Man-gi.
Schlick.
Joo Man-gi pulled the sword out of Tang Gi-mun's heart.
Snap. Snap.
He flicked the sword, shaking the blood off the blade. Since the blood of the Tang line was infused with poison, the blade would corrode if not cleaned immediately.
Joo Man-gi smiled. Finally, the Great Plan had begun.
"Heh... hehehe... Hahahaha!"
His laughter began to fill the air around the South Gate of the Godok Hall.
*
Having passed the corpse, Sun-woo began to leisurely look around the interior of the Godok Hall. There was no one inside who could truly threaten him anyway.
The strongest among the candidates were the Eldest Young Master, Tang Jeong, and the Fourth Young Master, Tang San. Though they were undoubtedly geniuses, having reached the Peak Realm before the age of thirty, they were no match for Sun-woo, who had reached the Upper Stage of the Super-Peak Realm and was already eyeing the Absolute Realm.
Furthermore, after being soaked in Tang Seo-yoon's toxins, Sun-woo possessed an incredible resistance to poison. Who could possibly stand against him? Unless the Poison King Tang Jin-cheol himself showed up, there was no danger.
Sun-woo took in his surroundings. The interior of the Godok Hall was bizarre. Since it was built upon a Poison Zone, toxic qi seeped from the ground, and various poisonous herbs grew rampantly everywhere.
Their appearances were strange, filled with plants he had never seen before. The most striking was a massive tree with a purple hue. From its trunk to its leaves, the entire tree was dyed purple, making it look incredibly eerie and unique.
These strange purple trees lined the path densely, and Sun-woo began to walk along that trail.
'Wow.'
Sun-woo marveled inwardly as he walked. He had never seen trees like this even in the modern world. They were likely mutations that had occurred naturally after the toxin-filled Godok Hall had been left undisturbed for hundreds of years. They probably all contained lethal poison.
After walking for some time, the purple trees became even more numerous, filling his entire field of vision. It seemed he had ventured quite deep. He needed to secure food and water, but all he saw were poisonous herbs.
'I guess no normal animal could survive in a place like this.'
Sun-woo sighed inwardly. Hunting an animal would have been the easiest way to get food, but it was unlikely any animal could live in such a toxic environment.
Skreeeeee! Skreeeeee!
Just then, a bone-chilling sound, like metal scraping against metal, reached Sun-woo's ears.
Gasp!
Startled by the sudden noise, Sun-woo immediately circulated his internal energy.
Skreeeeee! Skreeeeee!
The sound became even clearer. Sun-woo closed his eyes and focused his hearing to locate the source.
Snap.
Sun-woo's eyes flew open. It was above him, in the trees.
He quickly shifted his gaze upward. And there, he locked eyes with them.
Eight black eyes were staring down at him all at once, letting out that skin-crawling screech.
Sun-woo's eyes widened in horror. Why on earth was this monster here?
Sun-woo was gripped by sheer bewilderment.