Her Transformation
“Dog-Beating Dragon!”
“The Blood Sect’s mortal enemy!”
“You cowardly piece of trash who murdered our brothers with blasting powder!”
Insults and titles tangled together and came pouring down at once. Blood Sect martial artists, eyes blazing with blood-red light, howled for vengeance until their throats threatened to split.
“Hey, those blasting charges were yours to begin with.”
I had just picked them up, lit the fuses, and tossed them right back. Where exactly was the cowardice in that?
“Shut that mouth, you Murim Alliance dog!”
“Just like a righteous hypocrite—always so long-winded!”
So this was what they meant by double standards. A group that had spent decades nursing a reverse-victim grudge had elevated the art of blaming everyone else to pure performance.
“Still, running into you like this is convenient.”
“If we bring your head back, the Blood Sect Leader will finally acknowledge us!”
“So be a good boy and offer up that neck, you orthodox mongrel.”
Experienced masters closed in around me, their killing intent rising thick and ugly. Blue sword qi and saber qi—the unmistakable mark of the Peak Realm—flared up on every side.
Three sent by the Blood Sect, one from Poison Valley. Four Peak Realm martial artists in total, lining up for a group hunt against me alone.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake—you shameless bastards!”
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sheer number of high-level fighters. They edged the encirclement tighter, blue blade qi and dark-red murderous will seeping outward like poison mist. I thrust the Dog-Beating Staff forward and shouted in exaggerated panic.
“Hey! Four Peak Realm masters ganging up on one man? Have you no shame at all?!”
I kept yelling that if they still had any sense of embarrassment they should come at me one-on-one like proper warriors. No matter how deep my internal energy ran, I still only had two arms. And these weren’t random thugs—they were masters who had each broken past ordinary human limits. If they came swinging blade qi from every direction at once, there would be no answer.
“Silence!”
“Against a hypocrite like you, numbers don’t matter!”
I should have known. Completely shameless. Dang Yeohye noona had asked me to hold out for just one incense stick’s time while she was defenseless. Looking at this mess, I was starting to doubt I could keep that promise.
“Die—!”
Sword light flashed from four directions at once. Masters streaking in on red trajectories so fast that reacting was nearly impossible. A white line cut through the red ones; I barely knocked aside the two arcs in front of me with the Dog-Beating Staff, then twisted my whole body with everything I had.
Seogeok! Puk!
They had read my evasion. Mid-path, the blades bent and harvested blood and flesh from me.
“Kh—!”
Whether the blades were coated in poison or not, a searing, fire-brand pain shot out from the wounds.
“Again with this!”
“As if he already knows Blood Sect sword forms…!”
“You slippery little eel!”
The moment they tasted blood, the Blood Sect fighters’ breathing turned ragged and wild with excitement. On my side, one staff swing had already cost me two new wounds. Counterattacking was a luxury; even keeping up with them was becoming desperately hard.
“How about we call this a draw…?”
“Your head!”
“We’ll offer it to the Sect Leader!”
Shiiik! Sswaeek!
Blade tips tore the air. Swift swords poured in from every direction without a single breath’s rest. The four masters steadily sealed every gap and pressed me harder.
“Kh—!”
The wounds kept multiplying and deepening. This time it might actually not be easy—that thought had just begun to skim across my mind when—
“Kuhwoong!”
A massive crimson beast punched through the sword light at lightning speed.
“Pibao!”
My private nickname for her. A thousand-geun body check sent one Blood Sect fighter flying far into the distance.
Papapapat!
Then she came on with her enormous claws, raining attacks down like a waterfall. Ever since the fight with the Human-Faced Spider, the Bear-Cat Divine Fist she had been polishing shone with real brilliance. Psychological pressure, forcing the enemy into impossible either-or choices, then threading the gaps between blades—her technique was exquisite. The enemies, facing a beast that suddenly started performing actual martial arts, completely lost their composure.
“Keok!”
“What the hell is this bright-red bear…?!”
“Damn it all—a mere beast interfering in our great work…!”
How do you like the taste of kung-fu panda, Central Plains bastards? They couldn’t keep their heads straight.
“That’s my girl! So majestic and reliable!”
“Kuhueung?!”
“…And so elegant and graceful too! Beautiful, my Pibao!”
“Kuhueung!!”
I hastily corrected myself. Satisfied, she snorted and swept toward the remaining enemies like a typhoon.
Chachaeng!
And right on her heels came the Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace, Maeng Hogon, swinging a rough, heavy saber with brutal force.
“Young Hero Mujin! We’ll each take one!”
He joined the fray like the wind, and together with Hyeol-ungmyo he peeled off one Peak Realm master each. That left only two Blood Sect Peak Realm fighters in front of me.
With the vast internal energy I had built through good deeds and the power of the Heavenly Killing Star, this might actually be doable.
“…Brat. That confident look of yours is extremely irritating.”
“Normally we preserve a master’s corpse for blood arts…”
“But you are the Blood Sect’s sworn enemy—even the Sect Leader has spoken of you.”
“So we’ll make a special exception and present your head to him ourselves!”
They took turns shouting about how they would cut my throat and offer it up. Apparently my name had gotten fairly famous inside the Blood Sect if even the Sect Leader himself was mentioning me.
“Fine. I’ll salt your skulls and ship them to the Demon Extermination Unit.”
Ever since the Dragon-Phoenix Blood Incident, every Blood Sect member had a bounty on their head. Peak Realm fighters had to be fairly high-ranking officers; the payout would be nice and fat.
“Ha. A wet-behind-the-ears brat who only just reached the Peak Realm.”
“You think you can stand against the two of us, who have already reached full maturity?”
They sneered and unleashed thick, blood-reeking sword qi. Muttering something that sounded like an occult chant, they began lifting the pooled blood from the ground drop by drop.
Ah. Right. I had completely forgotten about that little trick.
The droplets quickly sharpened into needle-like points. Two Peak Realm masters plus an unpredictable, headache-inducing blood art. Perfect.
Can I do this?
No—I had to. If I fell here, a completely unprotected Dang Yeohye would be exposed to them as well.
“Come on then, you sons of bitches!”
When I fought to protect something, the Cloud Star Heart Method answered most strongly. A pure white aura rose from my entire body, vast and distant. I watched the dazzling radiance wrap the staff in white and steeled myself for the fight.
“Arrogant little shit!”
“Fine—we’ll tear you to shreds!”
Taat!
Dang Yeohye felt the virulent poison she had carried for half her life begin to writhe. The toxin that had sunk into her very marrow, coloring her every action and temper with poison qi, was now being forced out by something even more vicious and pure.
“Huu…”
The essence of a spirit beast that had absorbed the energies of heaven and earth for hundreds—perhaps more than a thousand—years: the Human-Faced Spider. That essence began to settle into her body. Poison qi surged and roared through every meridian. In the sensation of her entire body melting down and being reforged, she felt her limits shattering.
Chuchuchu—
Bones shifted with low grinding sounds. Through skin that had half-dissolved and then regenerated, a deep-green mist of poison qi streamed outward. Leaves all around withered and blackened; the onlookers flinched and hurriedly backed away.
Joy and rage… sorrow and delight…
Emotions that had always felt slightly off-kilter now swirled and crashed inside her. Thoughts flashed across her mind in rapid succession; her senses sharpened and shifted with dizzying speed.
“Young Mistress…”
Neungsam’s worried voice reached her from not far away. Worry. Concern. Other people’s feelings, which had once seemed muffled behind a thick wall, now arrived with startling clarity. And her own emotions, once constantly stoked into a raging blaze, settled into something calmer than before.
Huuung—
Having driven the old poison out to the last drop and filled every emptied space with the Human-Faced Spider’s essence, Dang Yeohye sat cross-legged as an extraordinary aura poured from her body. A vast wave of energy coiled and roared through the Beast Palace like a dragon stirring. One woman had just vaulted over the wall of the Peak Realm.
And inside the building that had become a chaotic battlefield, Dang Yeohye opened eyes that flashed with poison-laced light. Deep, abyssal dark-green pupils. She drew the scattered poison qi and internal force back into herself, then rose with quiet, unshakable poise—the second daughter of the Sichuan Dang Clan. In that moment a martial artist had broken free of her shell and stepped into a new world. Everyone nearby held their breath and simply watched her.
“Huuuuu.”
A long, emptying breath that released everything that had been lodged inside her. The energy still raged roughly through her dantian and body, but in the end she had made it completely her own.
“Lady Dang Yeohye… could it be… have you reached that realm…?”
Neungsam swallowed the rest of the question. Dang Yeohye only grinned. Then she demonstrated, with her own body, the technique said to be possible for only the briefest instant once one stood between the Peak Realm and the Transcendent Realm.
Shwaaaah!
She coated her hands, then shot the force outward in a short, sharp burst—showing exactly what realm she had attained.
“Ohhh…!”
Neungsam’s eyes flew wide. The people around them shot to their feet.
“G-Gang qi? Then what she just used was Hand Force?”
“Does that mean she’s reached the Transcendent Realm?”
“No—even a Transcendental Peak master can manage it for a moment if their internal energy and realm support it!”
“Either way… damn. What a sight we’ve just witnessed…”
The grass across that whole stretch of the Beast Palace had already withered black under the ferocious poison qi.
“It feels like something in my head has finally cleared away.”
She clenched and opened a hand that had grown even whiter and more delicate, as if quietly observing something new. The feelings others held toward her, and the feelings she held toward others, had both become far sharper. And the feelings she held toward one particular cheeky young man…
“Young Mistress, have you truly reached the Transcendental Peak Realm…?”
Neungsam asked again, voice trembling with excitement. A small, crescent-shaped smile curved her lips.
“Neungsam, don’t I look a little taller?”
The poison that had been blocking her growth points had been replaced, and as an unintended side effect her body had managed a tiny bit of physical growth.
“Mmm… yes, about two finger-joints taller, I’d say…”
Ordinary poison elixirs never produced this kind of effect. Neungsam nodded blankly at the unprecedented phenomenon.
“Now I finally have the presence of a proper noona for that brat.”
Even after reaching Transcendental Peak, her obsession with being treated as the elder remained intact.
“…You’re still shorter than Young Master, though.”
Dan Mujin was in the middle of a growth spurt; his height was shooting up day by day.
“What matters isn’t height—it’s the size of one’s heart.”
“Well, if we’re talking about that…”
The other party had casually handed over a priceless inner core like it was nothing. A true magnanimous soul.
“Shut it, Neungsam.”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
Still the same Young Mistress after all. Neungsam allowed himself a small, relieved smile. He had openly snagged her words twice in a row and still hadn’t been punched or sworn at. For a servant who had attended her for so long, that counted as enormous progress.
“So what exactly happened while you were circulating your energy?”
Not only her martial realm, but her body and state of mind seemed to have changed.
“Other emotions slipped into a heart that had been filled with nothing but rage.”
“Other emotions…?”
“Yes. And those other emotions won.”
The explanation floated somewhere between profound and completely opaque. Even Dang Yeohye herself looked like she didn’t fully understand what had just occurred.
“In any case, you’ve achieved Thousand Poisons Immunity and reached Transcendental Peak, correct?”
“That’s right. This body is now a Transcendental Peak master—Poison Claw Mountain Blood, Dang Yeohye.”
She planted both hands on her hips and beamed with open confidence. The overflowing self-assurance automatically pulled a smile onto Neungsam’s face as well.
“But Young Mistress… there’s still one sworn little brother outside who could really use your help.”
“…Ah, right!”
Drunk on the new realm, she had completely forgotten about the brat. She immediately drew up poison qi and internal energy, shifting into combat readiness. Those ominous auras she had felt approaching from far away—she herself had been the one who first asked him to hold out for just one incense stick’s time.
“Mujin—!!”
Dang Yeohye cut through walls and doors with flashing hands, smashing everything in her path as she burst outside.
“Haaah… haaah…”
I had rolled, sprinted, and raised every kind of hell I could, and I still ended up with a whole collection of neat round holes punched through my body. When blood-compressed finger bullets came flying from my blind spot right in the middle of a fight, how exactly was I supposed to dodge?
Jureureuk. Jureuk.
My blood was streaming freely through those holes.
“…Using… blood arts again.”
So this was what getting shot felt like. I glared at the two Peak Realm fighters, who looked every bit as wrecked as I did, and seethed with pure outrage.
“…You tenacious bastard.”
“Monster. Why won’t you just go down?”
That was my line. I had tried the classic trade of flesh for bone, a pure war of attrition, and these Blood Sect freaks still refused to drop. When I watched them reabsorb the blood they had spilled, I almost blacked out from sheer disbelief. Even in a Central Plains crawling with eccentrics and heretics, what the hell were these things?
“Still… you look exhausted as well.”
“Once we take your head, that bizarre regeneration of yours will finally stop!”
They exchanged a look.
“Even if one of us dies…”
“There will be peace in the next life.”
Then they started delivering lines that sounded exactly like suicide bombers ready to throw their lives away. I flinched and took a couple of careful steps back.
“Blood World Asura Soul.”
“Bloody Heavenly God Descent!”
After muttering those words, they seemed to reach an agreement: one of them would sacrifice himself if necessary to take my head. Something about how the future of the Blood Sect demanded that I not be left alive.
“Wait—human life is precious! Call off that plan!”
“Silence, enemy of the Blood Sect!”
“I offer this life to the Blood Heaven God—!”
Crimson trajectories that always warned me of killing intent sketched themselves across the air in every direction. Even at a glance, this reeked of a mutual-destruction technique.
“Goddamn it!”
I clenched my teeth and poured everything into Whirlwind Steps. In the instant when that all-or-nothing killing intent closed around my throat like a noose—
Kwaaang—!
A small human figure crashed in like a yaksha and swept both men away in a storm.
“You fucking maggots! You put holes in my little brother’s body?!”
The Blood Sect Peak masters were flung away by the tremendous impact, coughed up mouthfuls of blood, and barely managed to stagger back to their feet.
“Talk! Why did you do it?! Why?!”
A roar loaded with profound internal force washed over them like a wave.
“Because… you’re the enemy…”
Blood trickled from their ears. Their eyes were dazed. They answered the unfamiliar high-level master who was grilling them over something so obvious with pure bewilderment.
“And that gives you the right to turn a kid into this kind of mess? Are you even human?!”
“Keugh… when martial artists fight, of course it gets messy…”
“Don’t give me excuses, you bastards!”
Logic was useless against a master whose rage had climbed all the way to the top of her head. She drew out the hazy Hand Force that had been beading on her fingers like dew and stretched it nearly a full jang in length.
“H-Hand Force…?”
“I never heard there was a master of this level here…!”
After my unexpected appearance, the sudden arrival of yet another Transcendental Peak fighter left them unable to hide their shock. They looked ready to scatter in total panic. Searching for someone to blame for this disaster, they finally jabbed accusing fingers at me.
“You! Dog-Beating Dragon! You dug a trap from the very beginning, didn’t you?!”
“What grudge do you hold against our Blood Sect that you’d drag a Transcendental Peak master all the way out to remote Nanman…?!”
What trap? I just stood there wearing the most dumbfounded expression I could manage.
“Shut up! Here’s the blood feast you love so much, you sons of bitches!”
For some reason, the sight of me seemed to make Dang Yeohye even more furious than usual. She raised both hands—internal energy packed solid inside them—and charged. Then she tore into them with both hands curved like a raptor’s claws, spraying blood and screams in every direction.
“Aigoo… so she didn’t actually calm down after all.”
Neungsam ajusshi arrived a beat late, scratching his cheek as he watched his mistress turn enemies into bloody rags.
“When Young Master Mujin is involved, her eyes just flip even harder… hmm. So that’s how it is.”
He muttered to himself, then nodded as if he had reached a private understanding.
“What the hell is even happening…”
I felt the holes in my body sealing under my regeneration and simply dropped onto the ground where I stood. In the short time I had been sitting there, Dang Yeohye had already finished wrecking the two in front of her and was rampaging like a bare-assed thunderbolt toward the rest of them.
“Die! Dieee!”
Thanks to a master of that level diving in so enthusiastically, the entire battle tilted at terrifying speed.
“Well… I guess we’re alive?”
The way my sworn noona seemed even rougher after reaching Transcendental Peak did catch my eye a little. Still, I decided to go with the philosophy that good things were good things.