Chapter 75: Four-Way Confrontation-1
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 75: Four-Way Confrontation-1
"I... don't know..."
Dong-gwak, paralyzed by the Poison King’s venom, stammered as he trembled violently.
"You don't know?"
Tang Jin-cheol asked back, his voice dripping with murderous intent.
"Even if I did, I have absolutely no intention of telling a bastard like you!"
He was going to die anyway. If death was inevitable, he might as well go out after getting under the man's skin.
"Amusing."
A smile spread across Tang Jin-cheol’s face. Under normal circumstances, it might have been a charming smile, but with his face covered in burns and oozing pus, it was nothing short of hideous.
Soon, a poisonous qi began to gather in Tang Jin-cheol’s hand. Unlike the usual green hue, it flickered with an ominous red light.
Sshhh.
Tang Jin-cheol pressed his crimson-stained hand against Dong-gwak’s left cheek.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
The moment his hand touched the skin, Dong-gwak’s cheek began to melt away.
"Still don't feel like talking?"
"Just kill me already!"
"Is that so? Then die you shall."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
Tang Jin-cheol slid his hand upward, melting the man's skull. Dong-gwak screamed in agony as his bone dissolved, and before long, brain fluid began to leak from his hollowed head.
Dong-gwak died instantly.
"Who’s next?"
The Tang Clan Head turned to the remaining disciples of the Five Poison Sect, a grotesque smile plastered on his face. Seeing that expression, the disciples shook with primal terror.
*
After torturing every last one of the Five Poison Sect disciples, Tang Jin-cheol was seething with irritation. Despite their paralyzing fear, none of them had breathed a word about the Poison Demon’s location.
His annoyance peaked.
After falling into a trap and taking a Jincheon Thunder Bomb head-on, Tang Jin-cheol had been forced to fight a life-and-death battle against the traitors Joo Man-gi and Tae In-jeok while his body was in shambles. Even for someone like Tang Jin-cheol, who had reached the absolute state known as the Transcendent Realm, facing two masters of the Upper Stage of the Super-Peak Realm while injured was an arduous task.
Realizing he couldn't win a conventional fight, he had used his right arm as bait to finally secure victory and send the traitors to Mount Bukmang.
After reducing them to a handful of poisonous sludge, Tang Jin-cheol had quickly entered the Godok Hall through the South Gate. There, he began to uproot and consume every poisonous herb growing inside. To Tang Jin-cheol, who could convert poison into internal energy, the toxic plants of the Godok Hall were no different from elixirs.
It didn't take long for him to recover his poison and internal energy. As he began to scout the interior of the Godok Hall, he soon encountered a group of people. Since everyone except the Young Clan Head candidates was an intruder, Tang Jin-cheol had no qualms about using force.
Based on their martial arts, he was able to deduce their identity. They were from the sect that had once stood as a rival to the Tang Clan before being wiped out by the Absolute Martial God, Lee Jae-won.
They were disciples of the Five Poison Sect.
The Five Poison Sect had left the position of Sect Leader vacant ever since the Poison Demon vanished. The fact that they were active again after years of silence meant only one thing.
The Poison Demon, who had disappeared twenty years ago, had returned.
Tang Jin-cheol was puzzled. He wondered why a ghost of the forgotten past would suddenly reappear now. But he soon shook his head. That wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that the man had made the Tang Clan his enemy.
"I'll make you pay for underestimating the Tang Clan."
Grind.
Tang Jin-cheol ground his teeth. He closed his eyes and slowly began to spread his ki-sense. He didn't know the exact location, but the method of finding him was simple. He just had to find the presence with the strongest poisonous qi inside the Godok Hall.
As Tang Jin-cheol’s ki-sense expanded, he eventually locked onto a presence radiating an immense amount of poison.
There!
His eyes snapped open. Tang Jin-cheol immediately activated his movement technique and began to run. He had to catch the target before they vanished.
His pace quickened. It was time for a meeting with the man who was once known as the World's Greatest Poison User.
*
Sun-woo was pushing his way through the dense undergrowth.
"Ah, for fuck's sake."
A curse escaped his lips. The grass was so tall it felt endless, and the blades were so sharp they left bloody scratches all over his body.
Sun-woo was reaching his limit. He had been searching for the Human-Faced Spider for a considerable amount of time, but he hadn't seen so much as a hair of the creature. He needed to catch it quickly to consume its inner core, and the lack of progress was making him anxious.
Of course, there was no one else in the Godok Hall capable of taking down the Human-Faced Spider, but the situation would change if the Tang brothers decided to cooperate. If several Peak Realm masters who practiced the legendary Ten Thousand Streams Return to the Source Divine Art attacked together, even the Human-Faced Spider could be killed.
Sun-woo grew desperate. The female Human-Faced Spider currently possessed the inner core of the male he had hunted. If someone else poached the kill, all his hard work would go down the drain.
He couldn't let that happen.
Sun-woo quietly closed his eyes and spread his ki-sense. His method for finding the spider was surprisingly simple: find the presence with the strongest poisonous qi.
The Human-Faced Spider looked like it had lived for centuries. It was certain to possess a level of poison that the Tang brothers couldn't even dream of matching.
Sun-woo focused his mind. His ki-sense expanded, slowly blanketing the interior of the Godok Hall. The range of one's ki-sense increased with their realm; Sun-woo’s current maximum was about three hundred meters. Thus, he moved in three-hundred-meter increments, searching for the target.
Hmm.
Once again, he felt nothing significant. Just as he was about to give up and retract his sense, he caught a fleeting glimpse of substantial poisonous qi at the very edge of his range.
What was that?
Sun-woo spread his sense again toward the area, but no matter how hard he searched, he found nothing.
Was it an illusion?
Right then, the massive poisonous qi reappeared at the edge. It wasn't an illusion.
Sun-woo rejoiced. In the Godok Hall, the only thing that could possess such a massive amount of poison was the Human-Faced Spider.
Flash.
Sun-woo opened his eyes. A smirk played on his lips. He had finally found it.
Internal energy swirled through his body before gathering in his feet.
Boom!
The energy beneath his feet exploded, propelling Sun-woo forward. He utilized the Wind-Dust Step, moving as fast as possible.
It was hunting time.
*
Skreeeeeeee! Skreeeeeeee!
Meanwhile, the Human-Faced Spider that Sun-woo was so desperately searching for was screeching eerily as it swung through the trees on its webs.
She was incredibly irritated. She had scoured the Godok Hall to find the enemy who had killed her mate, but she had only found a few similar-looking humans; the actual culprit was nowhere to be found.
At first, she had tolerated it because the humans she found were tasty and increased her poison, but as time passed, her frustration grew. Her husband had been her companion for countless years. She was consumed by rage at the fact that her mate—who was nearly as powerful as she was—had been brutally killed by a fragile human.
She had to kill him. She had to find him, tear him limb from limb, crush his skull, and suck out his brains. But since the actual culprit was missing and only other humans were in sight, her fury was reaching a breaking point.
Skreeeeeeee! Skreeeeeeee!
She closed her eyes and spread her ki-sense. Having completed two moltings, she possessed power incomparable to before, and her ki-sense was no exception. Unlike before, when she could only sense vague directions, she could now pinpoint specific locations.
Her ki-sense expanded, enveloping the Godok Hall. She began searching for the presence with the strongest poisonous qi. This was the human who had killed her husband, after all. He was bound to possess a level of poison that matched his feat.
Right then.
Twitch.
She felt a massive amount of poison at the edge of her range. A thrill ran through her. She had finally found him.
Bloody tears began to stream from her eyes. The time to avenge her husband had arrived. She retracted her sense and began moving through the trees on her webs as fast as she could.
It was time for revenge.
*
Thud.
The Poison Demon sat down on the corpse of Tang Ju-gi. He puffed on his long pipe, exhaling a cloud of smoke. His expression was twisted, as if he were deeply dissatisfied.
"Dammit."
The Poison Demon spat out a curse. He turned his head to look around. Scattered everywhere were the rotting corpses of elders and seniors, emitting a characteristic foul stench. They had all died by his hand.
The Poison Demon was annoyed. He had gone into battle with high expectations, but their level was far below what he had anticipated. Because of the gap in their poison cultivation, they had been slaughtered without even being able to put up a proper fight.
The Poison Demon hated that. In poison arts, it was impossible to overcome the hierarchy of realms. Lower-level poisons could never defeat someone with higher-level poisons. Therefore, those who used poison arts usually developed alternatives to compensate for this.
In the case of the Five Poison Sect, that alternative was swordsmanship. By harmonizing swordsmanship with poison arts, they could amplify their power. The Tang Clan was the same, having established a more efficient martial system by combining poison arts with hidden weapons.
But frustratingly, not a single one of these elders or seniors had mastered hidden weapons. Instead, they had brandished swords, which was almost laughable. Hidden weapons were the most compatible tools for the Ten Thousand Streams Return to the Source Divine Art, yet they had rejected that entirely and drawn swords instead. He couldn't help but scoff.
"Whew."
The Poison Demon took the pipe from his mouth and exhaled smoke. A sense of self-loathing washed over him. Had he really spent twenty years in seclusion for this? If he had known their level had dropped this much, he wouldn't have bothered with complex schemes; he could have just faced the Sichuan Tang Clan head-on.
"How pathetic."
With a sigh, the Poison Demon stood up. Disappointment was one thing, but work was work. It was time to get started. His task was to wipe out the entire direct bloodline of the Tang Clan. Since he had killed the elders and seniors, only the brats remained.
The Poison Demon expanded his ki-sense. He intended to hunt down whoever he sensed first. But then, he felt a massive poisonous qi approaching his location from the west.
Huh?
The Poison Demon was momentarily taken aback. The kids here should only be at the Peak Realm at best. Yet, the poison he felt far exceeded that level. It was impossible.
Right then.
This time, he felt massive poisonous signatures approaching from the south and the west respectively. They were enormous, seemingly equal to the first one he had sensed.
What is this?
The Poison Demon was stunned again. Not one, but three massive poison signatures had appeared. And none of them were at a level that could be dismissed as mere Peak Realm.
Are they other elders?
But even for elders, this energy was beyond the norm. No mere elder could possess this much poison. Their presences, felt through his ki-sense, were drawing closer and closer.
Who the hell are you people?
With a tense expression, the Poison Demon stared in the direction the poison was approaching from.
Right then.
Thump!
Something landed in front of him with a massive vibration and a roar. A huge cloud of dust kicked up from the impact, shrouding the area.
Skreeeeeeee! Skreeeeeeee!
An eerie screech echoed from within the dust, grating on the Poison Demon’s ears. As the dust cleared, the identity of the fallen being was revealed.
Skreeeeeeee!
A face of peerless beauty contrasted with a massive body that easily exceeded fifteen feet, supported by eight razor-sharp legs. The being that had landed before the Poison Demon was none other than the Human-Faced Spider Sun-woo had been searching for. She had mistaken the Poison Demon for Sun-woo and come seeking him.
"A Human-Faced Spider!"
The Poison Demon was delighted by her appearance. Since ancient times, the Human-Faced Spider had been treated as a legendary spiritual being by poison users. Most spent their entire lives without ever seeing one because they were so rare, yet here one was, delivering itself to him. Moreover, based on its size, it looked to be at least several centuries old.
A thick smile spread across the Poison Demon’s lips. It was bound to possess an incredible amount of poison.
Right then.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
The sound of someone running approached from the south. He turned his head to see a freakish figure emerge. The man was covered in black scorch marks. Half of his beard and hair were gone, and pus oozed from burns all over his body. Half of his face was missing, and he was missing an arm, with only his left one remaining.
The Poison Demon grimaced at the hideous sight. Who on earth was this guy?
"Glad to see you. Are you the Poison Demon?"
"I am. And who are you?"
"Tang Jin-cheol."
The identity of the hideous freak was none other than the Poison King, Tang Jin-cheol, the Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan, who had taken a direct hit from the Jincheon Thunder Bomb.
The Poison Demon was shocked by the Poison King’s appearance. He had surely fallen into the trap and taken the blast head-on, yet he had returned alive. The Poison Demon felt a flicker of respect for the man's sheer tenacity.
"You certainly have a stubborn grip on life."
"I'm not the type to take a hit and just let it slide."
Having spoken, Tang Jin-cheol began to radiate murderous intent. This man was the enemy of his clan. And he was the previous World's Greatest Poison User, a man with whom he had an unsettled score. There was no reason not to fight.
The Poison Demon also began to draw up his poisonous qi. This was the man who had taken the title of the World's Greatest Poison User while he was in hiding. He wanted to see for himself just how great he was.
Right then.
Skreeeeeeee!
As the two masters drew up their poison and internal energy, the Human-Faced Spider also sensed the danger and began to release her own poison. Having consumed her mate, her poison was now powerful enough to hold its own against two masters of the Transcendent Realm.
The two masters and the monster began to eye each other, constantly emitting waves of poisonous qi.
Vrooooooom.
It was the moment the three massive poison signatures converged.
Rustle.
The grass swayed as a man emerged.
"Found you! You piece of shit!!"
The man pointed his sword at the Human-Faced Spider and shouted at the top of his lungs. He had finally found it. The man was Sun-woo, whose Human-Faced Spider inner core had been stolen.
"Huh?"
Sun-woo suddenly realized that the spider wasn't alone. To the left was a hideous-looking man covered in burns, and on the other side was a cranky-looking old man dressed neatly in black.
What the fuck?
Sun-woo stared at them with bewildered eyes.