Chapter 74: Night in Beijing (4)
Chapter 74: Night in Beijing (4)
This old man was a Poison Master of the Five Poisons Sect.
That meant he had successfully formed a Poison Pill within his body.
Just as a snake drinks water to synthesize venom, he had artificially developed an internal core—or perhaps a specialized organ—to synthesize poison somewhere within his human frame.
I wasn't sure if he could still be classified as human, but it seemed the bold people of medieval China were willing to count this as "barely human."
Regardless.
The fact that he had formed a Poison Pill meant he lived within the same perception of time as a master of the Peak Realm.
I had heard that a Poison Pill functions through a mechanism similar to the Middle Dantian.
In other words, he could perceive time in units of seconds, splitting moments into fragments and operating at a neural reaction speed that transcended human limits.
'That much is certain.'
Even if my movement to cut down the Child Gu was only around the First-Rate level, the speed at which I perceived its trajectory and thrust my blade had narrowly reached the fringes of the Peak Realm.
Hot steam billowed from my body, which had moved beyond its limits. In the chilly late autumn air, droplets of sweat rapidly formed and evaporated.
The old man’s eyes had 'tracked' every part of that process, every single moment. It meant those murky pupils of his had followed the tip of my blade at every turn.
"Heh."
The old man smirked at me, a deep blue Protection Aura flaring up around him.
"For someone who spoke so grandly, your offensive is rather lackluster. You know it too, don't you? That with your level of martial power, you cannot even touch this old man's body?"
"Listen to you. Anyone would think one of the Fifteen Lords of the World had graced us with his presence."
"Would it be any different? Whether a woodcutter is mauled by a tiger or a wolf, the result is much the same. In both cases, he ends up dead and withered."
"Oh."
Hard to argue with that.
"Look at you even now. Your internal energy is scattering in vain."
Swoooosh!
My blade swept across the old man's body again.
My wrists were throbbing with numbness because I had to concentrate my Thunderbolt Blade power to prevent the weapon from shattering against his Astral Energy.
The offensive I launched simply lost its way within the old man's aura.
The blade sliced through empty air, and the old man retreated, his body perfectly intact without a single scratch.
"How much time do you think you have left?"
The old man's breath turned into white mist.
"The Anti-Poison Wine in your mouth—it is no ordinary item, but its efficacy must be reaching its limit. No Anti-Poison Wine from the Tang Family can endure for long in my presence."
It was true.
The Anti-Poison Wine from the Tang uncle must have been an incredibly high-quality item.
It was perfectly blocking the poison arts being radiated by a master of the Realm of Poison Mastery, to the point where I felt no ill effects.
Thinking about it, this was actually insane.
If you equated the Realm of Poison Mastery with the Peak Realm, it meant this Anti-Poison Wine was indefinitely blocking the Astral Energy Skill of a Peak Realm master.
Such items generally didn't exist.
It might be because the opponent specialized in poison, or because the Sichuan Tang Family were the ones who made it.
Once I got out of here, I really needed to subscribe to a regular Anti-Poison Wine delivery service from the Tang Family franchise.
But regardless, as long as it was an external object, there would come a moment when its utility ended.
Like the filter of a gas mask. Even if it filters the air perfectly, the filter's lifespan must eventually run out.
Crunch.
I could tell because a subtle bitterness and sourness had begun to spread from the Anti-Poison Wine held between my molars.
The fact that this small stone fragment, which had been as tasteless as a smooth glass bead, was starting to leak 'flavor' was an ominous sign.
"Furthermore, you must have come here knowing what this place is. And for whom it was intended. Now that you have discovered the true nature of the Child Gu, do you think the eunuchs of the Ming Empire will let you live, even if you are a member of the Peng Family?"
Probably not.
What the Eunuch Bureau was doing was an overt attempt at a coup.
They were overflowing with the ambition to dominate every official in the government by forcing them to consume Child Gu.
If I had seen that, I wouldn't be able to walk out alive even if I weren't a Peng, but the child of a Prince.
And wasn't this place a workshop for raising insects using corpses? It was the perfect spot to cleanly take a head and bury the evidence.
In other words, my deadline was before the warriors of the West Depot, currently out on a secret mission for the Tang Family, returned.
Half a double-hour. The remaining time was likely less than that—perhaps just one meal's duration.
Thirty minutes. If I considered the time needed to kill this old man and escape, it was even tighter.
"This is why it is almost laughable for this old man to even trade blows with a fledgling like you. You have no way to harm me, and I am content simply watching your struggles."
"You're right about that."
I nodded and stepped back.
He was right. There was no point in pouring out my internal energy like this anymore.
Unless I found a way to breach his Protection Aura, this was like trying to cut water with a knife.
Generally, a knife cannot cut water.
Generally.
"I guess I was acting a bit too relaxed."
"Even now, you maintain that pathetic composure—"
"But, it's strange."
"…?"
I spoke with a smile, because the old man's wrinkled face somehow looked... terrified.
"Why is a master of the Peak Realm, who could kill a First-Rate warrior with a flick of his wrist, talking so much? Why do you keep running away? Why do you keep checking my reactions? And after all that, what? You talk about the Ming Empire, but in the end, is your plan just to run and hold out until the Han Chinese warriors arrive?"
"You dare insult this old man—"
"What are you so afraid of?"
"…!!"
A warrior who had never truly fought.
A warrior who had only 'learned' martial arts, formed a Poison Pill, and spent his time tinkering with corpses and raising poisonous insects.
That was why.
Even from the perspective of the Five Poisons Sect, which was currently at war with the Sichuan Tang Family, he was the kind of warrior whose loss wouldn't affect their overall strength even if he were dispatched to the Eunuch Bureau.
His learning wasn't entirely in vain, as he knew enough to manifest a Protection Aura befitting his Realm of Poison Mastery.
But he hadn't properly mastered the poison arts that should accompany that level.
That was why he couldn't even mount a decent offensive against a mere First-Rate nobody.
Exactly that much.
The moment he saw the Child Gu being sliced apart, he had scrambled to activate his Protection Aura.
Even with a Peng Family warrior right in front of him, he just let his poison energy leak out aimlessly without performing any specific martial arts.
It was truly pathetic.
"Swords, spears, bows, axes, or even daggers and poison. If you intended to harm people, you should have become a warrior."
"This old man has harvested more lives than you could ever imagine—"
"Feeding poison to someone you've captured and neutralized isn't a struggle; it's consumption. Would you call a commoner eating rice a 'slaughterer of grains'?"
The instincts of the Peng Family observed him.
With eyes utilizing a vision technique, I slowly scanned him from fingertips to toes.
Were those trembling fingers due to anger and shame? Or was it fear?
"So, let's find out."
Ptu. I spat the Anti-Poison Wine, which was now leaking bitter fluid, into my hand.
It had definitely been green, but now it was stained pitch black.
I felt a bit sorry for the Tang uncle.
I quickly gripped the Anti-Poison Wine and tucked it into my robe. I had to return it, after all.
In that moment, I felt the white mist crawling into my nostrils, stinging my lungs.
The poison energy filling this space was raging to consume my body.
Even as I felt it, I moved the hand I had tucked into my robe.
Clack. I crushed a wooden case with my fingertips and took out the pill contained within.
Even as I brought it to my mouth and bit down, the old man didn't move a finger, simply staring at me with intense wariness.
I mean, really. It's not like he's a villain in a magical girl show waiting for the transformation sequence to finish.
Crunch.
The pill shattered between my teeth, mixing with saliva as it flowed down my throat.
Thump.
My heart stopped for a heartbeat, and when it started again, it reached a pace that would be considered dangerous for an average human.
Thump, thump, thump. Internal energy circulated naturally in rhythm with my heartbeat.
Lightning bounced somewhere inside my ribs, scattering and blooming in all directions.
Then, crackle. When it reached a certain threshold.
"The Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear...!?"
With the old man's cry, my vision was dyed red.
Blood pooled in my eyes, causing my sight to shimmer.
My long robe billowed on its own, and my hair stood on end, swaying in the windless room.
And over that.
Zap. Crackle... Zzzzzzt!!
Lightning coiled up around my body.
The internal energy erupting with my heartbeat became fragments outside my body, sparking like embers on their own.
A freakishly incomplete Protection Aura—martial arts not permitted for my current realm—was forcibly awakened.
"You raised your realm with the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear...? Fine, those hypocrites of the Tang Family might be able to synthesize it, but do you even know what that thing is before using it?"
The old man's fingertips trembled as he shouted, frothing at the mouth.
"That is an ultimate poison that allows you to split and use your Innate True Qi! It means your life source is being shattered until the drug's effect ends! Know that in this world, nothing is given without a price...!"
"Concern noted."
I lifted my saber and rested it on my shoulder. I smiled at the trembling old man.
"Now that our eyes have met, I can see it clearly."
"What...?"
"Don't be afraid."
Is this your first life-and-death duel? Why are you so scared?
I smiled and raised my saber.
"And don't worry, I knew what I was taking."
Of course, when I received this, I had a consultation with the pharmacist.
The source was a pharmaceutical company officially recognized by the Han Chinese martial world, so the reliability was 100%.
*
"You want the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear?"
"Yes, do you have it? If not, it's a shame, but I can't help it. I mean, I heard your walls were breached by the Five Poisons Sect, so..."
"Who! Who said we don't have it! Little brat of the Peng Family, do you even know what that medicine is? You speak as if you've taken it before."
"Ah, yes. A few months ago."
Wow, has it been that long already?
"You took it...?"
"Yes, so...?"
"Then why are you so perfectly fine?"
"Pardon?"
As I furrowed my brows, the Tang pharmacist tilted his head.
"How can you be this fine after taking it months ago...? Is it a new secret medicine improved by the Five Poisons Sect? But based on the principles of that poison, that shouldn't be possible...?"
"What is it?"
Why does he keep trailing off and making me anxious?
And my friend Seong Won-ho fought just fine after taking that twice in his teens.
"Do you know about Innate True Qi? No, that's a silly question. Of course you do. Hmm... The Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear is an ultimate poison that forcibly opens the Middle Dantian by tearing away your Innate True Qi."
"What."
"Generally, once you start consuming Innate True Qi, it's uncontrollable. Once a crack appears in your life source, the Innate True Qi begins to scatter like water seeping from a broken porcelain jar. You know this, right?"
"Yes."
This was common sense in the martial world.
Innate True Qi. In other words, Innate Qi.
The lifespan that every living being is born with.
It is overwhelmingly more efficient than the internal energy accumulated through the Lower Dantian, but once you start using it, you cannot stop.
The vessel itself shatters.
It's not the kind of thing you use and save easily.
Literally, it's no exaggeration to say it exists only for a final strike before death.
And.
"When you consume the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear, you can tear off and use that Innate True Qi bit by bit. You don't lose everything at once, but you cannot prevent the damage to your life source. You will gradually weaken and eventually die. At shortest, you'll last fifteen days; at longest, it's hard to survive a month."
"But I've been fine for months."
"That is why it is bizarre. If your Innate True Qi were damaged, you couldn't possibly be this healthy."
So it was just an ultimate poison that let you live a few more days after using your Innate True Qi.
Then again, if a secret medicine that could instantly turn a Second-Rate or First-Rate warrior into a Peak Realm master only had the side effect of shedding a few bloody tears, that would be weirder.
If that were the case, the Five Poisons Sect would have ruled the world long ago.
Even the Demonic Arts of the Demonic Cult, known for their extremely fast early boosting, couldn't do that.
There was no way a mere pill from the Five Poisons Sect could achieve what Demonic Arts—which refine demonic energy by extorting human essence—could not.
Then why did Won-ho eat that stuff?
"Give me your wrist."
"Ah, yes."
The Tang doctor placed his fingers on my Neiguan and Zhangmen acupoints and briefly flowed his internal energy.
After checking my pulse for a long time and gently probing my acupoints, he pulled his hand away.
"You are perfectly fine."
"Oh. So I'm not going to die?"
"Yes. If I hadn't heard it from you, I wouldn't have believed you took the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear at all. Are you sure bloody tears fell, your face turned purple, and your Middle Dantian opened for a moment?"
"Exactly."
"Then it was indeed the Five Poisons Sect's Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear. We have a few left that we took from their corpses during their last raid on the Tang Family. It must be the same as what you took."
"Well, they wouldn't have given a fake to a warrior going to raid the Tang Family... but why do you carry such poison around...?"
At my question, the Tang doctor laughed cheerfully.
"We didn't come to Beijing expecting to return alive. We only fear failing our mission; why would we fear death itself?"
"Oh."
"Regardless, only take it after deciding it is absolutely necessary, and once you have taken it, you must come find me. We cannot rely on the hope that it will end without side effects like your last time, can we?"
"Of course. Thank you, Poison Lord."
"What's with the 'Lord'? Call me Senior."
"Sure. Senior Tang."
"……?"
*
The Protection Aura was sliced apart.
The deep blue aura scattered strand by strand, sparking and shattering in the air as if struck by lightning.
The Poison Master's aura, which hadn't permitted even a single strike from the Thunderbolt Blade, crumbled in a single offensive—
Slash.
With the sound of the air being cleaved, the withered arm that had been cowering beneath the aura rose into the air.
Then, it tumbled powerlessly onto the floor.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
"The guy who didn't even live half as long as you didn't even scream when his entire upper body was blown away."
I don't particularly miss him, Lord Divine Spear Yang Jeok-yo.
"You bastard!! You...!!"
The old man swung his remaining right hand, aiming for my face.
It was a gesture that made me want to laugh.
Clearly, he hadn't deeply mastered offensive techniques.
It was a movement one could never imagine from a warrior who had reached the Realm of Poison Mastery—the Peak Realm. A palm technique so clumsy and full of openings that it shouldn't exist at the speed of the Peak Realm.
Clang!
It was blocked by my gauntlet.
I didn't even need a particularly great defensive technique.
A single Heart-Protecting Fist was more than enough.
Boom, boom, boom. The old man's palm strikes were all neutralized before my gauntlet.
In the meantime, the distance between us became so close that our breaths mingled.
A shadow rose in the eyes of the old man whose arm had been uselessly repelled—the man who, until moments ago, had been smiling with the leisure of an absolute ruler.
Defeat, despair, fear, disgrace, denial.
His eyes, swirling with all those emotions, were filled with the shadow of my falling blade.
"Spare me."
The old man muttered in a voice so weak it seemed it might snap.
"I will give you the Mother Gu. With this, you can control the Six Ministries. Half of the Beijing officials have already consumed the Child Gu...! With a single gesture, everyone in the Beijing government will kneel before you. Spare me. This old man still has much use. Not only that, but the soldiers of the Governor's Office and half of the Hanlin Academy scholars have already taken the Child Gu...! Literally, Beijing will soon be in your hands!"
"Ah, wait."
I was about to ignore him and let the blade fall, but I barely managed to stop. I heard something strange.
"The Hanlin Academy?"
"Yes...! Yes! The Hanlin Academy! I planted Child Gu even in those lofty Han Chinese! The old scholars were cautious and difficult, but for those who are young and promising, 'all' of them...!"
"For the young and promising ones, 'all' of them...?"
A chill ran down my spine.
There was one last thing to confirm.
"Are you the only one with a Mother Gu?"
"My disciples as well... three in total..."
I killed one at the entrance.
One was this guy.
The remaining one.
The one who had gone to the door earlier upon this old man's command.
Even though he must have seen the corpse I left at the entrance, he hadn't returned... he had chosen to flee.
Son of a...
Slice.
The blade swept through the old man's neck.
With the expression of someone about to say more, and eyes filled with disbelief, the old man's head tumbled away.
I roughly kicked the corpse aside and turned around.
"Gah, cough!!"
A mouthful of pitch-black blood erupted from my mouth.
This wasn't an issue with the Heavenly Silkworm Purple Blood Tear; my insides were churning from the poison mist this old geezer had been leaking until just now.
My breath was getting shorter; it seemed it wasn't an ordinary poison.
Then again, even if his martial techniques were lacking, his realm was that of a Poison Master.
There was no way I could be perfectly fine after being permeated by poison arts from the Realm of Poison Mastery without an Anti-Poison Wine.
I spat out the blood and stepped out of the warehouse.
After catching my breath for a moment, I gathered all my internal energy into my feet.
Boom. The ground where my feet touched shattered as I launched forward, and the Guangqu Gate quickly came into view.
The Seven Shadow Immortal Step was now so mature that I could perform it without even consciously thinking about my acupoints.
"Ju Woo-rin..."
A Child Gu had been planted in her body.
It certainly wasn't a targeted move.
Even so. If the West Depot's coup began, the Pure Stream faction wouldn't even be able to resist before being subjugated.
Because their sole focal point would be following the West Depot's orders while poisoned by the Gu!