Southward
A remark that was all too easy to misread.
I tugged my collar closed and took two full steps back from Dang Yeohye.
"A young lady putting her hands on a strange man's body…"
"You—! That is not what I meant!"
Her cheeks flared scarlet as she shot the denial back at me without a second's delay.
If that wasn't it, then what exactly had she meant?
"Thousand Poison Immunity! Your poison resistance—the kind that lets you scarf down hundreds of toxic mushrooms and walk away fine! That's what I need!"
Thankfully, it wasn't the situation I'd been bracing for. I canceled the alarm I'd raised toward the adult woman standing in front of me.
"Then say it that way from the start. Why go around teasing people?"
"…Haa. Unbelievable."
She covered her face with both hands, looking utterly drained.
And for the record—I'd said it plenty of times already—I was neither Hundred Poison Immune nor Thousand Poison Immune. I simply endured toxins through a certain kind of bodily regeneration I couldn't properly explain. And the process of melting down and knitting back together over and over… that hurt like hell.
"So. Why do you need my poison resistance?"
I jerked my chin at her, telling her to keep talking.
"You remember my father, Clan Lord Dang Yangcheon, collapsing while training poison arts to reach Ten Thousand Poison Immunity, right?"
"Yeah, something like that."
Some grand method he'd forced through, if I recalled. A technique that involved swallowing a monstrous pill packed with dozens of poisons and flooding the body with toxins.
"Father took the Myriad Desolation Soul Pill—a secret art for becoming a poison body, passed down through generations of the Tang Clan."
Voluntarily putting toxic insects and venomous substances in your mouth—stuff I'd turn down even if you offered me a fortune. These Sichuan Tang people really were something else.
"It looks dangerous, but a poison-arts master of Father's level can usually handle it. Dozens of poisons check each other and form a balance inside the body instead."
"Oh…"
Using poison to counter poison. So that was it. I'd always wondered how someone could carry such extreme toxins and still walk around fine—the principle was locking that bizarre standoff into the body itself and climbing all the way to Ten Thousand Poison Immunity. It was a strange poison-cultivation method only Tang people would attempt; ordinary folk couldn't even start.
"But you said most can handle it. So why did he collapse?"
At my question, Dang Yeohye silently looked toward the Clan Lord's hall—where Dang Ak now sat in power.
"The Myriad Desolation Soul Pill mixes fifteen kinds of rare toxic materials. Every single one is essential. You can't leave any of them out."
An ultimate formula ratio bought with the sacrificed bodies of countless Tang ancestors—of course not one ingredient could be missing. And the fact that she was bringing this up meant…
"But after Father collapsed and we investigated, one of the critical toxins was gone… Something that should never have been possible with the Pharmacy Elders checking it dozens of times."
"Then you're saying the collapse was…"
"Yeah. Someone swapped out one of the key toxins before the rite and shattered the balance."
She bit down hard on her lip.
I'd thought it was just a training accident. Turns out the whole thing reeked. And with cases like this, if you pointed the finger at whoever gained the most, you were usually right. Call it a veteran troubleshooter's instinct.
"Hmm."
I glanced the same way Dang Yeohye had—toward the Clan Lord's hall.
"But Father is still holding his own against fourteen extreme poisons. If we restore the balance even now, there might still be hope."
Meaning he could complete a poison body and rise from his sickbed. Which would leave a lot of people who'd flocked to Young Clan Lord Dang Ak looking very uncomfortable. I had a feeling I'd enjoy that sight.
"Then why sit on your hands all this time? Why not just get that one toxin and fix the balance?"
Even the best plan meant nothing if you never carried it out.
"The missing toxin just happens to be something I have no way of obtaining—the Human-Faced Spider."
Human-Faced Spider. I was pretty sure I'd seen that name a few times in the wuxia novels I used to read when I was bored.
"Wait—the cursed monster beast that soaked up malevolent energy for so long it gained spiritual nature…?"
Ilhong, who'd been quietly listening beside us, burst out in shock.
"That's right. A grotesque toxin that wears a human face. That's the missing ingredient."
The two of them seemed fairly well-versed on the subject. Then again, people around here were always deeply interested in spirit beasts, sacred creatures, and monster beasts that carried the energies of heaven and earth.
"But just getting near that thing makes flesh and bone melt off from the deadly poison it spews."
"Exactly. So even knowing the location Father found it, I never dared try."
A lethal poison that killed anyone who approached. You'd need at least Thousand Poison Immunity to even attempt retrieval—and ironically, the only person in the Tang Clan who'd reached that level was the collapsed Dang Yangcheon himself.
"But you, Dan Mujin—you might be able to do it."
She looked up at me with glittering eyes. I found a pair of hope-filled dark-green pupils staring into mine and felt a crushing weight of expectation slam into me.
"I'm going back to the office."
"You little—! Where do you think you're going…!"
She locked both arms around my waist like a deadbolt, making it clear I was going nowhere.
"On what basis do you think I can survive that?"
"You fought the Blood Sect's extreme poisons bare-bodied—no detox wine, no antidote pills—just taking them head-on! So you'll endure this too!"
Even she, who'd achieved Hundred Poison Immunity, hadn't managed to tank them raw like that. True—thanks to the Heavenly Killing Star's regeneration, I hadn't died. But "no big deal"? My entire body had melted and regenerated on a loop until I wanted to die from the pain. I'd fought half-mad, screaming under a full-body burn that felt like being set on fire.
And she wanted me to take on something worse—risking death on top of it—for her?
"Sumimasen, muri desu."
"What the hell are you even saying…!"
I spat out whatever came to mind and tried to peel those thin arms off my waist. But she was still a Peak Realm martial artist even if she looked ready to drop—prying those glue-stuck arms free was a genuine struggle.
"Let go! I said let go!"
I hopped and twisted every which way, but Dang Yeohye clung on with vicious determination. For a while it turned into a full-blown rodeo. She went airborne under the Heavenly Killing Star's monstrous strength, then slammed back down, over and over. Eventually I had to stop thrashing and just exhale a ragged, exhausted breath under that relentless ground-and-pound.
"Mujin… please help me…"
The moment our eyes met, her face crumpled with desperation again. Seeing someone as sharp-tongued as her lower herself like this to save her father… something in my chest gave a little. And the energy of the Seongun Simbeop in my dantian stirred as well—almost scolding me that if I refused this, I wasn't even human.
"Young master, for the sake of everything we've shared… please…"
"…Boss. Maybe we should at least try?"
Even the rest of the party seemed moved by her. Well—Neungsam was always going to be on Dang Yeohye's side.
"Huu."
I looked down. Her small hands were trembling as they clutched me tight. I shouldn't have joked around calling her wife and myself her husband even in play. A completely unreasonable sense of guilt was settling in.
"…I'll try. But the second it looks impossible, I'm out."
If the poison's destructive power looked stronger than the Heavenly Killing Star's recovery, I'd run without hesitation. Those were my terms.
"Okay. Thank you… I'll repay this debt no matter what it takes."
Gone was her usual rough mouth. She thanked me with plain, honest sincerity. There was even a note of resolve in her voice, and I scratched the side of my head, embarrassed.
Well—if Dang Ak got purged, she'd naturally become the Tang Clan's next succession candidate. So I'd treat this the same as with Ilhong: a low-point investment.
"So where is this Human-Faced Spider thing?"
Even without looking, it felt like the kind of creature buried in the middle of nowhere.
"That way."
Dang Yeohye pointed far to the south.
"Blood World Asura Soul! Descent of the Blood Heaven God!"
A secret space for the exiled, hidden between steep canyon walls. Across a vast hall, countless Blood Sect disciples wrapped in crimson cloth lay prostrate, bowing toward someone beyond a curtain.
"…"
Yet the Blood Sect Leader behind the veil showed not the slightest response to his followers' cries. Stepping forward in his place were the Left Blood Law and the Right Blood Law of the Blood Sect.
"You who returned after ruining the great undertaking dare speak of the Descent of the Blood Heaven God?"
"Pathetic beyond belief!"
The sect's great masters scolded those who had survived the failed operation, their eyes murderous.
"The moment we would settle our blood debt with the Thunder Sword was right before us."
"And you couldn't even keep hold of a single Great Thunderbolt Bomb—botching the whole affair like this…?"
Not Moyong Cheon the Thunder Sword. Not the enemy lines. The Great Thunderbolt Bomb had detonated right in the middle of the Blood Sect's own formation. Decades of preparation had collapsed at the very first stage. With that critical first button fastened wrong, every plan that followed was now steeped in unease.
"It was because some lunatic suddenly charged in…"
"A man called the Dog-Beating Dragon…"
"Silence! You useless dogs!"
Rumble!
At the stream of excuses, the Left Blood Law stamped a true step and unleashed his fury. A thunderous roar shook the vast hall.
"Do you have any idea how hard it was to obtain that Great Thunderbolt Bomb?!"
To take revenge on the Heavenly Sword and the Thunder Sword, the Blood Sect had even reached out to a force they would never normally have allied with—some faction that dealt in black powder and firearms. Their targets differed, and their interests had aligned by sheer miracle, allowing a roughly even trade. But with the first great undertaking failed, the once-level scales of that deal had tipped hard against them.
"The late Blood Sect Leader and the disciples of previous generations must be shedding tears of blood."
"Incompetents."
The Blood Sect disciples in the hall groaned and began slamming their heads against the stone floor. Even as brows split and blood ran, the Blood Sect Leader beyond the curtain kept his silence.
"Blood World Asura Soul! Let us pay for this crime!"
The ringleader who had commanded the operation at the time cried out through a face streaming with blood. Even death required the Blood Sect Leader's permission. From behind the curtain, the leader quietly waved a hand in refusal. Seeing it, the disciples only smashed their heads harder.
"Then how are we to atone?!"
At his cry, the Left Blood Law pointed south.
"Head for the Southern Barbarian Lands."
A gesture toward the outer martial world beyond the Central Plains—where wilderness and savagery coexisted.
"What are we to do there, Left Blood Law?"
"We need more Yin-Yang Gu poison. Make contact with Poison Valley."
To receive something from the other side, you also had to give. One of the secrets that had let the Blood Sect hide its identity for decades and swell its ranks in the shadows was already being shared with that partner force.
"Yes! We will set out at once!"
"Descent of the Blood Heaven God! Death to the enemies of the Blood Sect!"
A grim chorus of Blood Sect voices filled the hall. A band of fanatics steeped in madness left the canyon and began their march south.
A certain novel has a famous opening line.
The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.
And I, too—after crossing the high mountain range and passing through Guangdong—found myself facing a sweltering jungle.
"…What is this, Noona."
Sticky skin, dense wall of trees—like I'd stepped into Southeast Asia. I stared resentfully at the person beside me.
"You never said 'south' meant the Southern Barbarian Lands."
"Ahem, ahem… Did I not…?"
Dang Yeohye had nothing to say for herself. She just cleared her throat and did everything she could to avoid my eyes.