The Red Boar
A sunken, shadowed hollow between the mountains.
Black mushrooms shaped like horns jutted up everywhere, sprouting thick as bamboo after rain.
"What the hell? There's way more than I expected."
Dang Yeohye stared at the mushroom colony like she'd just hit the jackpot.
A single Black Pine Cap was said to be usable in a thousand different poisons—and they'd found more than ten. After a greedy Blood Night Boar had already passed through, no less.
"At this rate, we won't even need to check anywhere else, young miss."
Neungsam set his gathering basket down with a solid thump, clearly pleased.
"See that, Neungsam? Heaven's fortune always follows those with deep purpose."
"I still don't see how 'screwing over your older brother' counts as deep purpose, but alright."
"Aigoo, you didn't need to say that part out loud."
The Sichuan Tang Family clearly had its share of internal drama. I scratched at an ear that had started itching and studied one of the Black Pine Caps from a few steps away.
Black sap dribbled steadily from it. Every plant around it had withered into dry husks. They supposedly belched out poison spores on a regular cycle—maybe that was the cause.
Either way, the thing looked like a walking death threat, screaming touch me and you die with its entire body.
"You're seriously going to pick those? They look vicious."
I asked, unease already sprouting across my face. It felt like staring down an unexploded shell that could go off any second.
"Don't talk nonsense. Why do you think we came all the way out here?"
She was definitely going to touch them.
"You said they spit poison if you mess with them."
"It's fine. I know how to handle them. I'm Dang Yeohye—Poison Claw Mountain Blood."
She thumped her chest with both hands, radiating confidence. It had that exact energy of someone saying "it's fine, I won't die" right before doing something incredibly stupid, which only made me more nervous.
"Uncle Neungsam. Has she ever handled Black Pine Caps before?"
"This would be her first time, I believe."
Oh, for fuck's sake. Pure overconfidence.
The second Neungsam finished explaining, I grabbed Ilhong and scrambled backward. Dang Yeohye snorted at us like we were ridiculous.
"Ha. Look at that face. I've been handling toxins since I was born, got it? You think this body is going to drop from one lousy mushroom?"
Her voice dripped with disdain—and underneath it, an unmistakable pride in her poison craft.
"Can't you just yank it from a distance with a long tool?"
"Scared? With specimens like this, if you don't handle them carefully with both hands, the value tanks."
She smirked, ignored every warning bell screaming in my head, and strode straight toward the mushrooms. Inner force flared around her; pale qi wrapped both hands like gloves.
"Whoa, Boss—look. That's the Fierce Jade Claws. The same technique that turned the Green Forest Bandits into a handful of bloody water."
Ilhong's bloodthirsty little explanation came from beside me as we watched. Dang Yeohye curled her fingers into the sharp beak of a raptor and drove them into the earth around a mushroom—thunk.
Hands white as jade parted the hard ground like soft tofu.
"Damn. High-level martial artists can dig with their bare hands."
They always said to be careful of old men and children in the Murim. I was starting to understand that proverb on a spiritual level. The drunk old man you bump into in an alley turns out to be a Beggar Sect branch leader. The arrogant brat you meet on a job is a Tang Clan expert. The Central Plains Murim was just that kind of blood-soaked place.
Thud. Thud.
Her hands stabbed and scooped around the mushroom again and again, clearly intending to lift the whole thing out with the soil still attached.
"See? I had a plan. When it comes to toxins, no one knows them better than this gi— huh?"
Then came the one word you never want to hear.
Her expression locked solid. Something under the dirt had gone wrong.
"Ah, shit. Don't tell me it's the kind with root threads—"
Psssshhh!
The Black Pine Cap shriveled tight and belched a cloud of black smoke.
Dang Yeohye made a choked "kheuk!" and collapsed in a heap.
"Young missss!"
Neungsam shot forward in a panic. I just heaved a long sigh beside a flustered Ilhong.
Somehow I'd known this was going to happen.
"I'm going to lose my mind. Seriously."
One unexpected strike later, the Black Pine Cap was a withered husk.
Neungsam fished a detoxification pill from his robes and forced it into Dang Yeohye's mouth in a hurry.
"Are you all right, young miss?"
"Cough—shit… I let my guard down. For the great Poison Claw Mountain Blood to make a mistake like this…"
She kept coughing up bloody flecks while chewing the pill with stubborn grit. Black, dead poison-blood soaked the ground beneath her.
"…"
Then she whipped her head toward me, as if she'd read the distinctly unimpressed look on my face.
"…What. What the hell is that look for? What do you want from me?"
I hadn't said a single word, and she was already prickling on her own. Poison-eaters really did come with matching tempers.
"It's a misunderstanding. Our Boss's eyes just look like that."
Ilhong jumped in to defend me, explaining that I kept my eyes boldly raised no matter what expert stood in front of me. I wasn't entirely sure that counted as a defense.
"Young miss, calm your breathing and slowly drive the poison out. If you don't, your qi and blood will knot."
"Urgh… it'll take half a ke to purge it completely."
"Then stop talking and focus on recovering."
Neungsam dropped down behind her and jabbed several pressure points along her back to help. Ilhong and I set the poison-herb basket and packs on the ground.
I'd felt uneasy earlier—backing far away had been the right call. Crisis detection skills, honed across countless clients.
"Ilhong, you saw that? This body's foresight."
"…Alright. I'll give you this one."
Even so, Dang Yeohye was handling the poisoning with the cool competence of a martial artist who lived and breathed toxins. With nothing useful for us to do, we simply watched from a distance.
Rustle. Snap.
Then, from the brush behind us, the sudden sound of branches breaking.
"…?"
I turned—and a massive beast filled my vision.
Fur dyed red as a crimson steed, tusks thrusting upward like spears, and eyes so savage they made my knees want to buckle on the spot. A giant murder-boar straight out of a movie was standing at the edge of the Black Pine Cap colony, staring at us like it fully intended to kill every last one of us.
"Boss… I think we're screwed."
Ilhong swallowed hard and delivered a perfect assessment of the situation. One moment we'd been rubbernecking someone else's crisis from across the river. The next, the fire had jumped straight onto us.
"Hey—what the hell?! You said the Blood Night Boar wouldn't be here!"
My voice rang with pure resentment aimed at Dang Yeohye. How was this in any way a job for low-ranking wanderers?
It felt like some curse had latched onto my life. Or maybe this, too, was the work of the ominous star nested inside me.
"Kweeeaak—!"
The roar snapped my mind sharp. The movie-monster of a beast slammed its hooves into the earth. A dark-red blur charged at terrifying speed. I kicked Ilhong square in the chest and sent her flying clear of the attack.
"Ilhong…! Run!"
Even the Art of War said that when there's no answer, you run. I shouted for her to bolt, then heaved the poison-herb basket onto my own back—to keep her free to move, since her lightfoot technique still wasn't polished.
Snort-snort.
The Blood Night Boar's massive nostrils flared again and again. It really had tracked the poison scent. Its eyes locked with mine as it huffed out rough breaths.
Stiff bristles, hide thick as armor, a body so huge you could punch it full force and barely leave a mark. A monster boar straight out of cinema. It felt like staring down a mid-sized car with a grudge.
And I was supposed to face this thing bare-handed, with no weapon.
"Hey, brat! I'll purge the poison—just hold it for half a ke somehow!"
Dang Yeohye shouted the most comfortable words in the world from a safe distance. On the way here she'd swaggered about how she could handle a Blood Night Boar if one showed up. Now that actual combat power was needed, the absurd female expert was the one collapsed on the ground.
"Bullshit! You think that's easy?!"
"Kweok!"
The Blood Night Boar snorted and slammed the ground again. A crushing charge tore forward like a sudden gale. I detonated inner force through the tips of my feet, flung my body aside, and rolled across the dirt. The attack skimmed past by a hair. Its stiff bristles raked my skin and drew blood.
BOOM!
Behind me, its massive tusk smashed into a yew tree. The impact made the trunk shudder, then crack with a wet splintering sound as it snapped at the waist. Leaves exploded in every direction.
If that hit me clean, there wouldn't even be bones left to collect.
"Kweik!"
Realizing it had missed, the beast wrenched its tusk free and spun with startling speed. The old saying was right—anything bright red is three times faster. For its size, the thing was viciously agile.
"Ugly son of a bitch."
Its rank, reeking breath washed over me in hot blasts. Yellow, sticky tusks bared wide as it roared.
"Kweeeaaak—!"
This charge came even faster. Overwhelming mass and speed closed the gap in the blink of an eye.
"Hah!"
No time to read its path or killing intent. I threw myself sideways on pure instinct—only for the Blood Night Boar to plant another hoof and twist its trajectory as if it had predicted the dodge.
Nowhere left to run. A tusk filled my vision, jutting straight toward me.
"Oh, shi—"
THWACK—!
The sound of a hammer slamming into raw meat. My body, specifically.
A heavy, whole-body impact. I didn't even manage a scream before I was launched nearly thirty feet. The world tumbled end over end. My ribs felt pulverized; breathing itself became a struggle.
"Kh… fuck…"
Dan Mujin tumbled across the ground like a corpse.
"No! Boss…!"
Ilhong let out a sharp, girlish scream. The Blood Night Boar swung its head toward her next, as if locking onto its new target. Killing light flared in its eyes as it scraped at the dirt, ready to launch.
"Kweik!"
Every scrape of its hooves gouged deep pits into the earth.
"Young miss—how much longer on the detox?!"
"A little more… kh… I need more time…!"
Forcing internal energy while poison still flooded her body risked twisting her qi and blood and crippling her for life. Even a few extra seconds would help—but the monster in front of them was already closing in, snorting hard.
Then, from behind the Blood Night Boar, a boy's voice scraped out:
"Khh… you ripped-up pork-belly bastard…! You dare hit a person?"
Dan Mujin—whom everyone had assumed was half-dead—had somehow forced himself upright and was glaring at the dark-red boar like he meant to butcher it.
"What kind of toughness does that kid even have…"
Dang Yeohye's eyes went round with shock. That last charge would have left even her survival uncertain. Somehow the boy had just stood back up.
"A mid-rank wanderer who hasn't even trained external arts—how?"
"Young miss, you can wonder about that later—!"
Neungsam ground out from behind her. And though Dan Mujin had managed to rise, only his mind seemed intact. His legs shook violently; he could barely breathe.
"Kweok!"
The Blood Night Boar snorted, ready to finish the job for good this time.
"You—cough—grab the hidden weapon in my robes and shoot that thing!"
Dang Yeohye spat out another mouthful of poison-blood and urgently called to the delicate-looking kid named Ilhong.
"Huh? How do I use this?"
Ilhong clutched a cylindrical device packed with Tang Clan craftsmanship, looking lost.
"Pull the ring on the back!"
Ilhong aimed at the Blood Night Boar and yanked the rear ring hard, just as instructed.
BANG—!
Something long and sharp shot out with an explosive crack.
"Kweeeak!"
Not far away, a pig's death-squeal tore through the air.
My entire field of vision was red.
Not because the pressure behind my eyes had burst—because the Heavenly Killing Star was thrashing in a frenzy at the brink of death.
BANG—!
An explosion cracked nearby. Ten pointed shadow needles sliced the air and punched into the Blood Night Boar's skull.
Thuk-thuk-thuk!
"Kweeeak!"
One of them had lodged near an eye, sending the bear-sized monster into a thrashing fit. My whole body felt wrecked from the earlier impact, yet this thing was throwing a tantrum over a few needles.
"Nngh. Nngh."
In the meantime, the same red energy that had fixed me after the cliff fall worked again—my arm bones snapped back into place with a sickening crack. The pain and the sound never got any easier. Moments later, strength returned to my grip.
"You're dead now, you son of a bitch."
The second I felt the bones settle, I charged.
"Kweik?!"
My body still throbbed, but my mind was crystal-clear with pure revenge. I vaulted onto its back like a rodeo rider and ripped out the needle stuck near its eye. Then I drove the missed needles home again with a hand full of force, planting them with perfect accuracy.
"Kweeeeeeak—!"
The Blood Night Boar shrieked loud enough to shake the mountain range and went completely berserk. I seized a fistful of its tough, bristling fur in one hand like a rein. With the other—
Stab! Stab! Stab!
"Die, you bastard!"
I stabbed obsessively at the only place the attacks seemed to work—the eye. Every time a sharp needle tip sank in, the beast convulsed like it had been struck by lightning, thrashing its entire body without restraint.
"Kweik! Kweeeik!"
Again the death-squeals of a slaughtered pig echoed through the mountains.
A blood-soaked human and a wild boar locked in a desperate struggle. The beast whipped its spine like mad, trying to throw me off. When I clung on like a leech, it finally slammed its head full-force into a nearby boulder.
"Kh!"
I couldn't hold on through the impact and finally tumbled free. I hit the ground back-of-the-head first; the world spun. A coppery taste of blood filled my mouth.
"Kweeeak!"
The enraged Blood Night Boar charged, blood streaming from one eye. This time it meant to crush my windpipe for good. My body refused to move.
Just as I teetered on the edge of certain death—
"Hey, brat. Good work."
A young voice. Ghost-light eyes.
Five fingers sheathed in hand qi drove down like a raptor's beak and punched straight through the Blood Night Boar's crown.
Shunk!