Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: The Bitter Path to Power
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"Can't you at least release the acupoint before you start talking?"
Lee Seon couldn't move, but his consciousness had already returned.
Thanks to that, he'd heard every word of the conversation just moments ago.
"Can't you undo even that one on your own? You've still got a long way to go."
Lee Jeong-gwang casually flicked his hand.
"Don't move."
Ugh.
Lee Seon tried to bolt upright but clutched his chest instead.
"Well, well."
Lee Jeong-gwang sneered.
Lee Seon glared at him, his face twisted in pain.
"What's with talking like I'm on the brink of death? It's embarrassing for a perfectly healthy guy to hear that."
"Sometimes shock therapy works better than beating around the bush."
If he were an ordinary person, he would've been poisoned from ingesting the toxin.
Even if not, forcing open his upper dantian like that would've turned him into a cripple from the backlash—or killed him on the spot.
If Lee Seon had been a normal person, that's exactly what would've happened, no doubt.
Lee Jeong-gwang scratched his ear nonchalantly.
"Does the fact that you're fine now erase the favor I did you? What seems trivial to you is a big deal from a normal perspective."
The very idea that someone could ingest poison and come out unscathed was absurd.
"I'd been watching her for a few days, and she didn't strike me as the type to forget a debt."
"The Tang Family folks are trustworthy. They repay favors twofold and grudges tenfold—ruthless about it. But a token's always better than empty words."
Lee Jeong-gwang knew the ways of the jianghu far better than he did.
"Who knows? Maybe boasting about this later saves your life someday."
"I'd prefer no life-threatening situations at all."
Lee Jeong-gwang pulled a plaque engraved with the Tang Family crest from his robe and tossed it over.
"She told me to give this to you."
Lee Seon caught the plaque and tucked it away.
"How's your body feeling?"
His complexion was still poor, but otherwise, no major issues.
Anyone else would've been singing the Divine Physician's praises right about now.
But Lee Seon would've recovered on his own soon enough without him.
Wearing a sour expression, Lee Seon pressed a hand to his chest.
"The pain hasn't gone away."
At that, Lee Jeong-gwang immediately smacked him on the head with his fist.
"Who told you to go eating poison and pulling that nonsense?"
Lee Jeong-gwang laughed in disbelief.
"You're probably the first guy to practice the Flame Emperor's Myriad Poison Art and still get poisoned by it."
The Flame Emperor's Myriad Poison Art was an extraordinarily unique martial art.
With the right mindset, not only could it neutralize poisons entering the body, but it could even convert their toxicity into internal energy.
In martial arts, poison was always a latent threat.
No matter how tough a warrior, if poisoned, they couldn't bring out their true strength.
The Sichuan Tang Family wasn't shunned among the orthodox sects for nothing.
But a martial art that completely eliminated the risk of poison?
It was something every martial artist in the world would covet.
Of course, it had its drawbacks.
Compared to other arts, its techniques were incredibly complex, making mastery extremely difficult.
But there was an even bigger flaw.
It could only be practiced by those with an extremely yang constitution.
Finding someone suitable was a problem from the start.
People whose energy leaned heavily toward yang or yin tended to have short lifespans either way.
Even if you found one and cured them, they often lacked the talent to learn martial arts.
If it were something anyone could learn and gain poison immunity from, it'd be called a divine art.
That's why this hard-to-transmit art had nearly died out—he'd restored it himself.
He'd always planned to pass it on if he found someone suitable.
And he'd found him: Lee Seon.
But the kid nearly died eating poison on his own while he was away from home for a bit.
To preserve the poison's effects, he'd refused to neutralize it even though he could—what a headache.
"If anyone asks, don't you dare say I taught you! What a disgrace for a disciple of the Divine Physician."
Lee Seon had his own side to the story.
"If I hadn't done that, I'd be dead."
"In the martial world, the weak deserve to die."
Lee Seon shot back sullenly.
"If you hadn't left, I wouldn't have needed to eat the poison in the first place."
That demon was terrifyingly strong, but if the old man had been there, it would've been different.
Among the people he knew, Lee Jeong-gwang was the strongest.
"..."
On that point, even Lee Jeong-gwang had little to say.
He hadn't imagined something happening while he was gone.
Despite all the precautions he'd set around the area.
"Did you see it?"
He meant Wi Yu-gi's corpse.
Lee Jeong-gwang nodded.
"Among the ugliest bastards I've seen, this one stood out."
"He was ugly to begin with, but after rampaging alone, he got even uglier."
Lee Jeong-gwang sighed.
"Demonic cultists are all like that. They can't handle their own power and self-destruct. It'd be nice if they went quietly, but the problem is even their self-destruction is a pain in the ass."
Lee Seon dredged up the memory with effort.
"His name was Wi Yu-gi."
"I've heard of him before. Thought he'd croaked somewhere since we hadn't heard from him."
He'd already examined Wi Yu-gi's body on his way back.
Figuring out how he'd died and what arts he'd practiced was simple.
The issue was why a Blood Cult dog had shown up here.
"What'd he say he came for?"
"Chasing Dang Ha-ryeong."
"I see."
Lee Seon sensed something off in Lee Jeong-gwang's flat response.
"You knew?"
Lee Jeong-gwang gave him a lukewarm scolding.
"What else would bring a Blood Cult demon to this backwater? They're not here collecting poisons."
Lee Jeong-gwang's expression darkened.
"Looks like the Blood Cult's about to stir up trouble soon."
Lee Seon narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"You planning to stop them?"
But Lee Jeong-gwang waved it off like it was nonsense.
"I've got enough on my plate—why waste energy scrapping with Blood Cult trash? You think the Murim Alliance exists for nothing? It's there to handle big incidents like that."
Lee Seon let out a relieved sigh.
"Good to hear."
He talked big, but the old man was always rushing around saving people.
"Worry about your own body. You skip proper training, that's why you're weak."
"You said I'm not weak at my level."
He remembered him saying peak-level in the martial world meant you could puff your chest out anywhere.
Lee Jeong-gwang shot him a pitiful side-eye.
"I always say it: in the jianghu, the stronger you get, the more danger you attract—and it drags everyone around you into it. If you don't want regrets after it happens, build your strength."
"So if I stay weak, no dangers come my way?"
"Fewer dangers, not none. I never said zero. Like this time—a master popped up out of nowhere threatening your life. You've gotta feel it now."
Having internal energy skewed to one property meant innate genius for certain arts.
"Quit slacking and put in some real effort, for once."
Lee Seon grimaced at Lee Jeong-gwang's solemn, weighty tone.
"Where are you headed?"
"Not right away. In a few days."
As Lee Jeong-gwang stood to leave, Lee Seon called out.
"Grandpa."
Lee Jeong-gwang froze at the word.
"How strong do I need to be to head out into the jianghu?"
This wasn't like him at all.
Lee Jeong-gwang's expression twisted subtly.
'Because of that girl, huh.'
Lee Seon had shown little interest in anything but poisons.
Only one reason for this sudden proactive shift.
The beautiful woman who'd introduced herself as Dang Ha-ryeong.
Their encounter had clearly sparked something in him.
A faint smile crept across Lee Jeong-gwang's lips.
"Strong enough to last one full shichen against the Human-Faced Spider Queen."
Not even one gak—an entire shichen?
Lee Seon's face soured.
"I'll mix some medicine."
As Lee Jeong-gwang left the room, Lee Seon took a slow, deep breath.
Hoo.
Bearing the pain, he circulated his martial art.
Flame Emperor's Myriad Poison Art.
One of China's Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors from mythology.
A legendary art said to have been created by Shennong, known as the Flame Emperor.
Extremely yang internal energy flowed through his meridians, burning away the toxins in his body.
Legend had it the Flame Emperor was the god of medicine who distinguished and named countless herbs.
The reason he survived eating all those poisonous plants was this.
Finishing his breath cycle and completing a full circuit, faint heat emanated from Lee Seon's eyes.
Days in the mountains could feel tediously boring at times.
He'd occasionally wonder about the outside world.
But helping and watching the visitors who came was enough.
If he hadn't met Dang Ha-ryeong, if he hadn't nearly died fighting that demon, he might've spent his whole life here.
The outside the old man described was full of fun but rife with danger.
He was right.
He needed to get stronger.
...And for that, there was one essential thing.
Blood Gate Mountain was a natural training ground for him, if no one else.
Grab any toxic herb nearby, swallow it, circulate the technique, and it all turned to internal energy.
The stronger the toxicity, the greater the gain.
The problem? Strong toxins tasted like hell.
He'd had no reason to seek them out before, but now he did.
Creeeak.
The door opened.
Lee Jeong-gwang entered carrying a bowl of bubbling black decoction.
"What the hell did you bring?"
Lee Seon stared at the medicine in disbelief.
"Can't you tell? Poison—deadly stuff."
Strong toxins were good, but lethal poison?
"You gonna drink it or not?"
Haa.
"Yeah, I'll drink. Hand it over."
The path to strength was harsher than he'd imagined.