Reunion
To cut to the chase, I ended up having a private audience with the kids' father — the Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace.
"…Uh, hello?"
For a place that supposedly never saw trouble, the village had kicked up quite a fuss over a strange outsider's visit.
"Hmm."
A rough-looking man draped in gray wolf pelts looked me up and down. His eyes were sharp enough to strip me bare and figure out exactly which ditch I'd crawled out of.
"You're Palace Lord Maeng Hogon, I take it…?"
The air was so heavy I figured I had to say something.
Instead of answering, the wolf-pelt man simply glanced sideways.
"You two told him my name?"
There stood Maeng Pyo and Maeng Seol, each sporting a fresh lump on the head and both hands raised. Apparently they weren't thrilled about how freely the kids had spilled everything to an outsider they'd known less than a day.
"Hyeol-ungmyo pulled him out of the river, Father."
"That means he can't be a bad person."
The kids clearly put absolute faith in their sturdy companion. If a spirit beast of that caliber had chosen someone, he couldn't possibly be rotten.
"Chosen, my foot. That one probably just scooped him up without thinking."
Maeng Hogon snorted, as if Hyeol-ungmyo had mistaken me for an oversized fish.
"Without thinking? Hyeol-ungmyo is a smart spirit beast who understands everything!"
"That's right, Father. Apologize to Ungmyo!"
The brats erupted in instant protest. Maeng Hogon shook his head at their ferocious loyalty, then slid his gaze back to me.
"You're Dan Mujin, was it?"
"Yes. Dan Mujin, troubleshooter out of Beijing."
He was the head of a major power, and he might become a client someday, so I threw in a proper introduction.
"From what I heard earlier… you came to hunt the Human-Faced Spider."
"That's right."
The kids must have already told him why I was here. Maeng Hogon narrowed his eyes, trying to read my true intent.
"I don't know how much you know, but that vile beast has a strangely human face and takes particular pleasure in human flesh."
I'd already heard that from Dang Yeohye on the way. Why would a centuries-old monster wear a human face? Same reason a deep-sea anglerfish dangles a light — to lure prey close enough to eat.
"Our village has suffered more than once because of it. So if you are truly serious about eliminating the creature… the Nanman Beast Palace is prepared to assist you."
Their territories overlapped, and the thing ate people — ugly incidents had clearly happened. Without meaning to, the Palace Lord let his killing intent rise, thick with hatred for the Human-Faced Spider.
"But I do have my doubts."
He fixed me with another sharp look.
"What sort of doubts?"
"The creature constantly spews a vicious toxic powder. That's why, until now, even approaching it has been nearly impossible. And you expect me to believe a young martial artist like yourself can succeed where we failed?"
Unlike other sects, the Nanman Beast Palace had no real resistance to poison. That powder had kept them from even attempting a proper revenge. A trained martial artist who took one wrong breath would lose consciousness and risk death on the spot — so how could some soft-looking fellow from the Central Plains possibly manage it?
"Father, but this big brother's different!"
"Yeah! His resistance to poison is insane!"
The kids jumped in at once, eyes sparkling as they defended me. Maeng Pyo and Maeng Seol eagerly recounted everything they'd seen and endured with me in the forest.
"He just grabbed every poisonous plant and insect in sight and ate them!"
"He even picked only the poisonous mushrooms and scarfed them down!"
"And he swallowed Blood Toads — pure venom — twice! A normal person would've had their organs melt on the spot!"
As the price for rapid physical restoration, my whole body had been screaming for calories, so I'd reflexively shoved anything edible into my mouth. But organs melting? Blood Toads? For heaven's sake, if I was putting something like that in my mouth, someone should have stopped me halfway. No wonder my whole body had gone soft and a crimson haze had been swimming in front of my eyes.
"…Huh. So despite appearances, you're a master of poison arts? Surviving Blood Toads puts you at least at the level of Thousand Poisons Immunity."
I wasn't even at a hundred poisons, let alone a thousand. I had zero poison resistance — my body just half-melted and regenerated. Though, come to think of it, after everything I'd been stuffing into myself lately, maybe I was starting to build some immunity. When your owner keeps force-feeding you toxins, you either adapt or die.
"And I'm a Peak Realm expert in my own right, Palace Lord."
I infused both fists with pure white fist qi and demonstrated the Hundred Knots Divine Fist.
Explosive fist forms that ruptured the air and hurled a crushing wave of qi straight ahead.
The Palace Lord and his children, watching from point-blank range, couldn't hide their shock. Maeng Hogon in particular looked like a man who had finally found the missing piece to a problem he'd been stuck on for years.
"Father, I told you! This big brother's amazing!"
"With Oppa, we can really take that spider on!"
The kids who'd been standing punishment bolted upright and started shaking both of Maeng Hogon's arms, whining about how he hadn't believed them and had made them stand there for nothing.
Whether they clung to him or not, Maeng Hogon kept his eyes locked on me, wearing an expression that promised trouble.
"If the children are right, then you might actually be able to… slay that mortal enemy of ours."
I wondered what history had turned the Human-Faced Spider into an irreconcilable blood foe. He strode over with blazing eyes and seized both of my hands.
"Will you join us in eliminating the creature? With your help, it would be like gaining a thousand troops and ten thousand horses."
Every trace of earlier suspicion had vanished. Instead he looked like a man who had waited a long time and finally grasped his chance.
"That was my goal from the start, and these kids already saved my life. Of course I'll help."
If they hadn't pulled me out of that raging current, I might already be fish food at the bottom of the river.
"Oppa, Hyeol-ungmyo saved you too."
"Don't leave her out. Big brother, she'll get sulky."
"…Right, right. Her too."
I made sure to mention the delicate yet violent panda as well.
"Excellent. Truly excellent. The Nanman Beast Palace will give you our full support."
That was the reaction I'd been waiting for. The bridges connecting the mountains were already gone, I didn't know the way up, and I still had to find my scattered companions. Having people who treated this region like their own backyard would be a massive help.
"Speaking of which, I need to find my scattered party first, so if I could borrow some manpower…"
Just then, a clattering racket erupted outside.
"Palace Lord! Palace Lord!"
A Nanman Beast Palace martial artist burst into the hall with a massive wolf at his side, breathing hard as if he'd sprinted the whole way after seeing something.
"What is it?"
Maeng Hogon's brow twitched.
"Outsiders have appeared!"
Everyone in the room glanced at my pale Central Plains skin.
"Two young women and one middle-aged man!"
"Huh?"
That combination sounded awfully familiar.
"One of them is a short woman with a vicious temper… and she seems to be an expert! She claims she's tracking someone and is raising hell demanding we hand the person over!"
Short, foul-tempered, and an expert?
I stood and spoke to Maeng Hogon.
"That sounds like my party."
They must have stubbornly followed my trail all the way here and run into the outer sentries of the Beast Palace.
"Your party — the ones who came with you to hunt the Human-Faced Spider?"
"Yes. But I should go out there quickly."
"Why?"
"That woman? When she's in a hurry or angry, the first thing she does is start throwing poison."
We'd only just started building trust in this remote jungle. I wasn't about to let it go up in toxic smoke.
I rose at once and launched into Whirlwind Steps.
A high-level movement technique that let the body race forward like a gust of wind.
"Boss! Boss!"
A teary-eyed Transcendental Peak Realm beauty of a youth sprinted over in a single breath and threw herself into my arms. Only after touching my face up close did she finally believe I was alive and sag with relief.
"Why'd you think I was dead?"
"My heart really… I thought it was going to stop. How on earth did you survive that?"
The drop had been lower than the cliff on the first day, so I'd figured I could probably live and just went for it. Of course, they hadn't known that and had been thoroughly terrified.
"You little son of a…"
Then a petite beauty radiating pure venom stalked toward me.
"You try that suicide stunt one more time… and next time I really will k-kill you…"
What kind of nonsense was that? She was muttering something that didn't even make sense.
"Young Master will gradually come to understand — this is simply Miss's unique way of expressing gratitude."
Her attendant Neungsam helpfully supplied the translation from beside her.
"She was so frantic following your trail along the river. When the traces actually grew faint at the midstream, she started swearing and fat little tears went plop, plop…"
Thud!
Neungsam never finished the sentence. He went flying into the distance with a strangled "Guh!" and tumbled across the ground.
Dang Yeohye's ears had gone bright red. She huffed and glared at me.
"When the hell did I cry…? That never happened, damn it!"
"Ah, yes. Of course not."
I agreed immediately, not keen on joining Neungsam in midair. The damp traces at the corners of her eyes were probably just my imagination.
"Anyway, did that crazy black-robed bastard just vanish? No — who was he in the first place?"
I asked about the black-clad figure who had suddenly appeared and pulled that dangerous sabotage.
"Heroine Dang, that explosion and the shape of the devices… those were clearly Tang Clan hidden weapons, weren't they?"
Ilhong, who had reverse-engineered and reassembled Tang Clan mechanisms before, had recognized the tools the man used.
"Don't tell me Elder Brother would go that far…"
Dang Yeohye bit her lip hard, as if she already had a suspect. How long had they been tailing us? A little surprising.
"But Boss, where even is this place? Who knew a village like this was hidden in such a wild, savage jungle."
"Right? I was shocked too. And why are there so many huge beasts wandering around the village…? Don't tell me this is that palace we only ever heard about?"
Most towns had dogs running around. Here they raised adult-man-sized wolves like dogs and let them roam free. Watching children play with the wolves, Dang Yeohye seemed to have more or less figured out where we were.
"Yes — the Nanman Beast Palace. The village was tucked right into a basin."
If someone hadn't fished me out of the river and carried me here, I would have walked right past without ever knowing it existed. And if they hadn't chased my trail, they never would have found it either.
"But how did you even track me? I fell in the river once, and from the middle I was clinging to a beast that was practically flying."
"Ilhong here stuck some kind of scent on you."
Dang Yeohye pointed sideways and casually revealed something I hadn't known. The Transcendental Peak youth beside her jumped like she'd been electrocuted.
"I-It's not like that, Boss."
"Then what is it, huh?"
I fixed her with a look that demanded an explanation.
"I just… thought something like this might happen. So I put a little Hundred-Li Fragrance from the Haomu Gate in your pouch…"
Hundred-Li Fragrance. The tool Central Plains bounty hunters supposedly used a lot. Ever since she'd blackmailed the Mysterious Pavilion Master with gu poison and gained access to the Haomu Gate's latest intel and tools, she'd been packing all sorts of things for the journey. I'd just thought my body had started smelling worse for no reason. So that had been the fragrance. I'd have to remember that from now on.
"Hmm."
"Th-Thanks to it we got to reunite like this, so isn't it a good thing…?"
When I just stared without a word, she started stammering excuses as if her own feet were on fire.
"Behave yourself, Ilhong."
"Yes, sir."