Chapter 345
Chapter 345
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 91
>Chapter Title: Dedicate (5)
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“Please... let me stay close to my granddaughter. This old bag of bones begs you.”
The Holy Fire Spirit Lord rubbed her hands together tearfully, pleading with the rogue monk Ja Geum-jeong, who sat on the coachman's seat sipping from a gourd flask of liquor.
‘She’s bawling her eyes out something fierce.’
Ja Geum-jeong pretended to have no interest in her desperate plea for her flesh and blood, not even sparing her a glance, but inwardly, his resolve wavered.
He might be willful and madcap, but it would have been stranger if he hadn’t been shaken by an old woman wailing for her granddaughter.
However, the Mara Phantom in the mask coldly restrained him.
“If you don’t want any bones broken, you’d best not take a single step from there.”
“You’re a real hardass. Heh heh.”
Ja Geum-jeong clicked his tongue in response.
Unlike him, the Mara Phantom still harbored deep resentment toward the Holy Fire Spirit Lord.
That was why he remained utterly unshaken by sentiment.
“What’s the harm in letting her stick close?”
“I’m just following orders.”
“Oh dear, a loyal retainer has arrived.”
“........”
“Speaking of which, that guy’s a real odd one.”
“What about him?”
The Mara Phantom looked puzzled and followed Ja Geum-jeong’s nod.
There sat Yu Mu-jin, eyes closed, lounging comfortably.
He didn’t seem to be circulating his qi at all, so it was hard to see what was so strange.
Yet as the Mara Phantom stared at him intently, a glint appeared in his eyes.
Even though his breathing wasn’t steady like one in meditation, faint wisps of energy were gathering around him.
“Hoo.... hoo....”
As Yu Mu-jin suspected, natural qi was slowly but surely drawn in with each breath.
It was utterly impossible by the common sense of other martial artists, but for him, who inherited the Yu clan’s bloodline, it was as natural as breathing.
“Cough.”
Yu Mu-jin coughed while breathing.
Blood smeared his lips from the cough.
He wiped it with the back of his hand and frowned.
‘What’s this? Why isn’t it dissipating?’
His body was so sturdy that it rarely sustained injury from ordinary matters, and even when it did, his clan’s monstrous regenerative power healed it in no time.
Yet the lingering sting indicated his heart hadn’t fully recovered.
He knew the cause was the bizarre malevolent energy centered on the wound, but strangely, it refused to dissipate.
‘It’s weird.’
Normally, any foreign energy entering his body would be expelled with just a bit of rest.
Even the energy from the cliff base had been purged quickly.
But this malevolent energy persisted, constantly reopening the wound and hindering recovery.
‘...Should I head back to the valley?’
It seemed like something he couldn’t handle alone.
With a sigh, Yu Mu-jin opened his eyes.
But then,
-Startle!
Yu Mu-jin’s narrowed eyes turned toward the Tang family compound.
He had tried to tune out everything to focus on recovery, but the screams he’d been hearing since earlier now spread like the wails of hell.
What in the world was happening?
‘Didn’t they say they were settling their karmic debts cleanly?’
So why were so many voices crying out in agony?
Feeling uneasy at the sounds, Yu Mu-jin soon rose from his seat.
* * *
What in the world was going on?
Tang Clan Head Tang In-hae couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
He had clearly seen with his own eyes that Mok Kyung-un hadn’t strayed from the area.
The Formless Poison Technique’s ultimate secret art, Poison Origin Faction Extremity, covered such a vast area and spread so quickly that he was certain even a peerless master couldn’t evade it.
So why was the bastard unscathed?
‘What?’
Was he enduring the formless poison’s venom with profound true qi?
No matter how skilled a master, one hadn’t reached the Poison Man realm couldn’t withstand it to this degree.
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un spoke up.
“Is this the Formless Poison you used to kill Grandfather?”
Tang In-hae’s eyes narrowed.
Bluffing.
After witnessing the immense power of this Formless Poison Technique, he should have moved to eliminate him quickly, yet he hadn’t budged an inch from his spot.
That meant he was definitely struggling against the Formless Poison.
“Putting on a brave front, are you?”
“Brave front?”
“You think I don’t know you’re barely hanging on with your internal energy?”
This might be his chance.
Tang In-hae pushed off the ground with both hands, launching his body toward Mok Kyung-un.
But as he tried to push,
-Thud! Thud!
His body wouldn’t obey.
Having poured out everything for the secret art—not just full power but even his vital energy—the backlash prevented his remaining qi from circulating properly.
‘No choice.’
It didn’t matter.
Even without him, there were plenty of others to step in.
This was the Tang Clan’s stronghold, after all.
Tang In-hae bellowed at the Tang Clan warriors.
“Now’s our chance! Strike him down!”
But,
‘!?’
Despite the clan head’s command, not a single executive or warrior moved.
“What are you doing? He’s afflicted by the Formless Poison and can’t move. Attack him now!”
“........”
There was no response to his urging.
Instead, the Tang Clan warriors stared elsewhere with hardened faces.
Tang In-hae was dumbfounded by their behavior.
Were they planning to waste this golden opportunity?
Why wouldn’t anyone step forward...
-Clap clap clap!
Then Mok Kyung-un clapped, speaking in an admiring tone.
“Impressive.”
“What?”
“Sacrificing your own retainers just to kill a single me. Is this what they mean by burning down the thatched house to catch a flea?”
‘!!!!!!’
Tang In-hae’s pupils shook at Mok Kyung-un’s mocking words.
In his single-minded determination to kill only Mok Kyung-un, he had been blind to everything else.
But hearing those words snapped his surroundings into focus.
Tang Clan members melting away pathetically from the Formless Poison, dying gruesome deaths.
The faces and eyes of the other Tang clansmen watching them had shifted from distress to fury.
“I..... I.....”
Suddenly aware of the hateful glares from his clansmen turning on him, Tang In-hae didn’t know where to look.
‘Why... why that look...’
If it was disappointment over the sacrifices, he could understand.
But this was the only way.
This bastard had killed Jang Mun-no, the Haeyoung Medicine Immortal who raised him, and wouldn’t spare anything connected to it—including him.
So if subduing him required some deaths, it was a worthy sacrifice.
Why wouldn’t anyone understand that?
If they just thought rationally for a moment...
“The aggrieved look on your face is a sight. You discarded and killed your own retainers with your own hands, and now you expect understanding?”
“You!”
-Grit!
Tang In-hae ground his teeth and turned to glare at Mok Kyung-un.
It was all that bastard’s fault.
None of this would have happened if he hadn’t shown up.
Driven to the edge by the hatred and resentment from his blood kin and family, Tang In-hae directed all his rage at Mok Kyung-un.
“Yes. Everything happened because you showed up.”
“Now it’s my fault.”
“You bastard!”
Trembling with fury, Tang In-hae finally mustered his remaining vital energy.
He launched his body toward Mok Kyung-un.
-Swoosh!
“Dieee!”
Daring to mock the clan head while unable to move from enduring the Formless Poison?
Fine. Since it’s come to this, I’ll take you as my companion on the final road.
It didn’t matter if no one understood.
But then,
-Thwack!
Tang In-hae’s flying body halted dead in midair.
As if someone had grabbed him.
‘!?’
Tang In-hae’s eyes widened.
What was this?
He had thought the bastard couldn’t even move from enduring the Formless Poison.
-Step!
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un took a step forward.
-Step!
Then another.
No—he kept walking straight toward him.
Tang In-hae couldn’t believe his eyes at Mok Kyung-un approaching so casually.
“H-How?”
“Now I get it.”
“What do you mean?”
“From a young age, Grandfather fed me all sorts of herbs and toxic plants. I ate them without knowing better, but at some point, he told me my blood itself had become deadly poison.”
“........Your blood..... became deadly poison?”
Tang In-hae wore an incredulous expression.
Those who cultivated poison arts naturally built up poison qi in parts of their bodies.
But no matter how long they trained in poison or how talented they were, the human body was inherently antithetical to poison, so they had to cultivate opposing antidotal energy as well.
To avoid being consumed by the poison.
“Impossible. For blood to possess poison itself......”
[The realm where one can freely manipulate poison qi after reaching the pinnacle of poison arts is called the Poison Man. But is that truly the end? What do you all think?]
It was the riddle posed by the previous previous clan head, Flower Thousand Poison Hands Tang Yeon-jong, days before dueling Myriad Poison Lord Baek Yu, as his final teaching.
His father, the previous clan head, had answered thus.
[The true end is surely the Myriad Poisons Body, a constitution that embodies all poisons, no?]
[That’s a freakish constitution that appears once every millennium, if at all. It’s not a realm achievable through human effort.]
[.......]
[No other answers?]
[........]
No one else could respond to his question.
Then that bastard, Jang Mun-no, stepped forward.
[Yes. What do you think?]
[Resistance implies opposition, so if one gradually adapts until everything constituting the flowing body draws close to poison, that would truly be the Poison Man.]
[Oh? Everything in the body drawing close to poison?]
[For example, what if even the blood flowing through the body became poison?]
At those words, Tang In-hae and all the Tang Clan direct descendants qualified as heirs scoffed.
If it were possible, who wouldn’t have done it?
The human body couldn’t become poison itself.
It could endure or adapt to poison, but becoming akin to poison was impossible.
That’s what they had believed until now.
But,
“No way. How could flowing blood become poison itself? It’s absolutely impossible....”
-Grip!
In that instant, Mok Kyung-un seized his mouth.
Then, in a voice laced with killing intent, he said,
“Since it’s hard to believe, maybe you should experience it firsthand.”
“Mmph.... mmph....”
-Grip!
Mok Kyung-un clenched his fist so hard that flesh tore.
Thick blood oozed out.
“W-What are you...?”
Mok Kyung-un forced open Tang In-hae’s mouth and dripped the flowing blood into it.
The blood poured into Tang In-hae’s mouth.
He wanted to spit it out, but with his mouth gripped, he couldn’t stop it sliding down his throat.
As the blood flowed down his throat into his esophagus,
-Sizzle!
The agony of his esophagus burning assaulted him.
Tang In-hae’s pupils shook wildly.
‘N-No way.’
It was truly poison.
How had his blood become poison itself?
He couldn’t believe it.
But what shocked him even more was,
“Gack gack!”
He had prided himself that no poison could affect him after mastering the Formless Poison Technique.
Yet this deadly poison invading through his esophagus rapidly induced poisoning symptoms throughout his body—agony so unbearable he couldn’t endure it.
Then something bizarre happened.
-Pop! Pop!
Blood vessels swelled on Tang In-hae’s face and across his entire skin before bursting.
It didn’t end there.
A grotesque sound like bones snapping emanated from within his body.
-Crack! Crunch!
“Kaaahhh!”
The pain was so excruciating that Tang In-hae couldn’t hold back and screamed madly.
Mok Kyung-un released his grip on the mouth and stepped back about three paces.
To observe his condition.
“Guhhh.”
Tang In-hae collapsed to the ground, his body twisting grotesquely.
Mok Kyung-un couldn’t hide his puzzlement at the sight.
After cultivating the Tyrannical Demon Poison Scripture, his body’s poison qi had indeed grown stronger, but it hadn’t caused symptoms like this before.
Yet Tang In-hae’s meridians were rupturing, and his bones were twisting.
“Gaaak!”
-Crunck!
Bones not just twisting but protruding here and there, Tang In-hae looked at Mok Kyung-un.
His eyes seemed to beg for mercy.
Seeing this, Mok Kyung-un curled his lips slyly.
“I thought killing you was my duty, but it seems that wasn’t the case.”
‘!?’
Wh-what was he saying?
Not his duty?
In that moment, Tang In-hae suddenly recalled Jang Mun-no’s words.
[You won’t tell me where you hid it to the end?]
*Cough... cough...*
[You think I can’t find it just because you won’t talk?]
*Cough cough... For old times’ sake, I won’t say. Don’t... touch that child.... All that anger... will eventually... come back to you.]
‘!!!!!’
Back then, he had dismissed it as curses from a dying man.
But those weren’t mere words.
The poison in this bastard’s blood was completely antithetical to him.
That’s why his body couldn’t endure it.
‘J-Jang Mun-no!’
-Crack! Crunch!
As his meridians burst and bones twisted, Tang In-hae’s neck finally snapped, and he breathed his last.
Mok Kyung-un watched his pathetic end with impassive eyes, then looked up at the sky and murmured,
“You had it all figured out.”
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