Chapter 83: Fighting the Poison Demon - Part 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 83: Fighting the Poison Demon - Part 2
When I first dropped into the Murim, my only thought was survival.
I believed I didn't have the luxury to care for anyone else when I could barely keep my own head above water. I told myself I would use anyone and everyone if it meant staying alive. After all, these were just characters in a fictional story; there was no need to feel guilty.
That was what I thought.
But after meeting Ok-ryeong, I realized how wrong I was.
At first, I just needed a place to hide from the pursuit of the Cheonmu Alliance. I figured her home—a place Lee Jae-won found uncomfortable—would be the perfect refuge. That thought became a conviction, and that conviction led to action.
Using the Zhu-Rong Art, I disguised myself as a child and hid under the wing of her kindness. My plan was to maintain the charade while providing her with some companionship in her loneliness. If my identity were ever discovered, she might be hurt again, but I didn't care. She was just a character in a novel I’d never see again once I returned to my original world.
It didn't take long to realize that was a delusion.
From the moment she began to sincerely care for me while I was pretending to be hurt, something began to bloom deep within my heart. How could she be so devoted to a complete stranger?
Terrified by that affection, I tried to keep her at a distance. I avoided unnecessary contact and tried not to speak to her. But it was useless. The sprout had already taken root and was growing uncontrollably. When I saw her pouring her heart out to me through her tears, I felt it.
She wasn't just text on a page; she was a person. She wasn't a collection of documents made of characters, but a human being.
I realized that in both my life as Jang Sam and my life as Sun-woo, there had never been anyone like Ok-ryeong, and there likely never would be again. I didn't want to let this woman go. I had fallen for her.
And so, I couldn't help but feel regret.
Regret for choosing to come to White Flower Peak. Regret for not approaching her with the truth. And regret for the fate that forced me to hurt her once more.
That was when I understood. This wasn't just a setting in a novel; it was reality.
I made a new vow then: never to get emotionally entangled with anyone else in the Murim. The emotion of love had brought me fear. I didn't want to be tied to anyone through feelings ever again. I had enough on my plate just looking out for myself.
Yet, despite that vow, I found myself emotionally entangled once more.
First, there was Madam Un Ga-ryeo. The Great Matriarch of the Tang Clan and the woman who had raised that scoundrel of a son. Initially, I felt nothing for her. My only goal was to deceive her well enough so she wouldn't realize I wasn't the real Tang Se-gi.
Moreover, her constant, motherly gaze made Sun-woo uncomfortable. Why did she look at him with such love when he wasn't even her son? Feeling uneasy, he vowed not to get involved with her.
But that vow, too, was broken.
On the night he broke in to steal the Hundred-Year Flower, a drunken Madam Un Ga-ryeo mistook him for the Tang Clan Head and threw herself at him. Unable to suppress his own lust, he didn't stop her. They crossed the line.
Guilt began to weigh heavily on Sun-woo. He had slept with the mother of the man he had killed. No matter how much of a bastard Tang Se-gi had been, he was her only son. Overwhelmed by guilt, Sun-woo vowed over and over again never to make the same mistake.
But his vows were made to be broken. Eventually, he slept with her again.
It happened because he was caught stealing the Hundred-Year Flower. There was no other way to stop her from committing suicide out of the guilt of having slept with her "son." To save her life, Sun-woo had to deceive her again, and while he stopped her suicide, he became shackled by his own guilt.
Furthermore, she had become a woman who could no longer find satisfaction without the Yin-Yang Harmony Divine Art. She was a lonely woman who had lost her precious son to him and was ignored by her husband, the Clan Head. How could he abandon a woman whose life had been so thoroughly twisted because of him?
Sun-woo felt a profound sense of responsibility toward her. He decided that he would take care of Madam Un Ga-ryeo as well—if only to clean up the mess he had made.
He knew there would be many obstacles ahead. He didn't want to become trash like Lee Jae-won. He didn't care if people pointed fingers and called him a hypocrite. He would simply follow his heart.
Then there was Tang Seo-yoon.
Tang Seo-yoon was incredibly strange and delightful. She was an eccentric, a woman so wild she could be called a total lunatic. Though their alliance was temporary and forced—built on the bait of martial arts—she was the one who always provided the means and methods to save him from crisis, supporting him with everything she had.
She was a woman who hated lies and would keep her word even if a blade were at her throat. She seemed like a rigid, stubborn person, but she was undeniably likable.
Whenever Sun-woo spoke with her, he felt like he was returning to his old self from the modern world rather than being Jang Sam. It made their time together feel more precious and enjoyable. Since falling into the Murim, Sun-woo had never truly been himself. He was always Jang Sam, or a fabricated Jang Sun-woo, or Tang Se-gi.
To him, Tang Seo-yoon was the only one who allowed him to return to the person he was before the Murim. When he was with her, he felt more comfortable and amused than at any other time.
Sun-woo liked her. He felt a genuine sense of friendship. Though it was a temporary alliance, he found himself wishing it would last forever.
And so, Sun-woo felt regret once more. He had become emotionally entangled with yet another person.
But it couldn't be helped. It was too late to deny how much he had grown to like her. In the end, despite his vow to never get involved with anyone, he had become tied to two more women during this short journey through the Jianghu—bound by friendship and guilt.
That was why Sun-woo had to hesitate. He had to struggle with the Poison Demon's question, which was essentially asking him to choose who would live.
‘As if I could ever choose.’
Sun-woo smirked. It was a self-mocking laugh at the fact that he had even momentarily considered trying to pick one.
There was no way he could choose. If he abandoned either of them, he might survive, but he would be dead inside. The very essence of who he was would crumble. He didn't want that. Even if he were to die, he wanted to die as Sun-woo.
It was ridiculous that he had even agonized over it. Why debate something so obvious?
Sun-woo placed his hand on his sword hilt.
Shing!
In an instant, he drew his blade and lunged toward the Poison Demon like a bolt of lightning. Startled by the sudden attack, the Poison Demon surged his Protective Qi.
Clang!
Vroooom!
Sun-woo’s Sword Astral collided with the Poison Demon’s Protective Qi. With a screeching metallic friction, the Poison Demon was sent flying. Though he had managed to block the strike, he couldn't completely deflect the sheer impact.
The Poison Demon flew back thirty feet and slammed into a tree.
Boom!
The sound echoed loudly as the tree trunk absorbed the impact of his body.
"Tsk."
Sun-woo clicked his tongue, seeing the Poison Demon embedded in the tree. He had intended to cut him down right then and there, but the old man had managed to wrap himself in Protective Qi in that split second to minimize the damage.
"You little piece of shit! I'll fry you in a vat of filth!"
The Poison Demon scrambled up from the tree and shouted, pointing a finger at Sun-woo. He was fuming. He had taken a liking to the kid and shown him all sorts of favor, only to be met with a sneak attack. Even among the demonic path, this was a special kind of bastard.
"You ungrateful beast!"
"Fuck off with that 'gratitude' bullshit. You think I don't know you only saved me so I'd deal with the Human-Faced Spider while you fought the Poison King?"
Sun-woo replied with a sneer. There was no such thing as unconditional kindness in this world.
"You insolent brat!"
The Poison Demon began to gather his poisonous qi. He intended to kill this outrageous child in a single blow.
"I didn't like you from the moment you tried to snatch the Human-Faced Spider I worked so hard to catch, you old geezer."
Sun-woo also began to circulate his internal energy. Since it had come to this, it was do or die. One of them was going to die today.
A white aura began to gather around Sun-woo’s sword, eventually enveloping the blade completely. The sword began to emit a brilliant, radiant light.
It was Sword Astral.
"Let's settle this."
Sun-woo charged straight at the Poison Demon. The battle had begun.
*
The Poison Demon exhaled a cloud of poison at the charging Sun-woo. A wave of ink-colored poisonous qi surged forward to swallow him.
Ssssssssh!
‘Dangerous.’
Slash!
Sun-woo raised his sword and sliced through the ink-colored poison. The severed qi instantly oxidized and vanished, burned away by the dense Sword Astral surrounding Sun-woo’s blade.
‘It worked!’
Sun-woo rejoiced inwardly. Since reaching his new realm, the density of his Sword Astral had increased significantly—enough to incinerate even the Poison Demon’s qi in an instant.
But his joy was short-lived. The Poison Demon’s poisonous qi began to swarm toward him again.
"Shit."
Cursing under his breath, Sun-woo swung his sword repeatedly.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Every swing of his sword burned and neutralized the approaching poison. However, the sheer volume of the poison and the wide range of its approach began to drain his strength.
"Heh, impressive. To think a brat like you has already reached such a realm."
The Poison Demon laughed in admiration as he watched the Sword Astral. Even with Sword Astral, one shouldn't be able to incinerate the poisonous qi of someone in the Transcendent Realm so easily. The fact that it burned on contact meant Sun-woo’s Sword Astral possessed a density on a completely different level from the norm.
‘Has he crossed the wall?’
Though he laughed heartily and acted composed, the Poison Demon was more bewildered than anyone. What kind of stage was the Transcendent Realm? It was a massive wall, a realm called the Absolute, with fewer than ten people in the entire Murim officially recognized as having reached it.
Of course, if one were to scour the world for hidden masters, there might be more, but those officially acknowledged as Transcendent were few and far between. And yet, this youth, who didn't even look thirty, had achieved that supreme realm.
The Poison Demon was genuinely shaken. It was like looking at the Sword Emperor, Yang Tae-san. Sun-woo’s image began to overlap with that of Yang Tae-san, the man once called the ultimate weapon of the Orthodox Faction.
‘Damn it.’
He realized he couldn't afford to hold back. He had subconsciously let his guard down, viewing the boy as someone similar to his disciple, Go Wol. Go Wol was also a genius among geniuses, having reached the Upper Stage of the Super-Peak Realm just past the age of thirty. Thus, the Poison Demon had assumed that no matter how talented Sun-woo was, he would at most be at the Super-Peak Realm.
He was wrong. The man with the sword before him wasn't just a common genius. He was a once-in-a-century talent. At an age not even thirty, he had obtained the martial power of a Great Sect Leader.
It was impossible not to be shocked.
The Poison Demon began to release an even thicker shroud of poison.
Swoooooosh!
In an instant, a massive tidal wave of poisonous qi surged toward Sun-woo.
"Fuck!"
Sun-woo cursed and twisted his body. He couldn't cut through a wave that massive. His body bent like a bow.
Pop!
With a sonic boom, Sun-woo’s body snapped forward, launching him through the air. It was the Bow-Body Shadow-Flicker technique.
"Urgh!"
A groan escaped his lips as the strain hit his already exhausted body. But he had no choice. Without the Bow-Body Shadow-Flicker, he wouldn't have been able to dodge that wave of poison.
The wave of poison crashed into the spot where Sun-woo had just been, completely obliterating the surrounding area. Having narrowly escaped the range, Sun-woo let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew..."
He knew that if he had been caught in that, even in the Transcendent Realm, he wouldn't have emerged unscathed.
Sun-woo looked ahead. Despite unleashing such a massive wave of poison, the Poison Demon showed no signs of fatigue. He had known this wouldn't be easy, but feeling the gap firsthand sent a chill of fear through him. Even though he had reached the supreme Transcendent Realm, there were still monsters lurking above him.
Nevertheless, Sun-woo did not let go of his sword. He leveled his blade.
He was afraid, but he had to do this. To save everyone, he would cut down the Poison Demon. That was all that mattered.
Sun-woo’s eyes began to gleam as he glared at the Poison Demon. Light gathered on his sword once more, beginning to radiate brilliantly.
Seeing this, the Poison Demon also began to circulate his Hunwon Five Poisons Divine Art, surging his internal energy and poisonous qi. He concentrated all that power into his right hand.
His right hand gradually turned black, until it became a complete Black Hand. It was the Poison Palm.
The Poison Demon intended to give it his all.
Step.
Step.
The two of them lunged at each other simultaneously. Sun-woo’s Sword Astral and the Poison Demon’s Poison Palm collided head-on.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion rocked the interior of the Godok Hall as Sun-woo’s Yin-Yang Harmony Qi and the Poison Demon’s Hunwon Five Poisons Qi clashed, locked in a desperate struggle for dominance.