Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Three-Legged Crow
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"What we're after... is the Demon Subduing Hall. More precisely, the Monstrous Being inside it."
Baek Hyun could only stare blankly for a moment at those words.
He had figured they weren't targeting anything beyond the Demon Subduing Hall, but he hadn't expected that to be the source of all this chaos.
"Targeting a Monstrous Being in the Demon Subduing Hall... Why? Don't tell me you're planning to tame whatever's in there?"
Baek Hyun let out a hollow laugh as he spoke.
Everything sealed inside the Demon Subduing Hall consisted solely of Malevolent Spirits or Spiritual Beasts of comparable ferocity.
The Starpoint Sect's ancestors hadn't sealed them away for no reason.
The Starpoint Sect hadn't guarded the Demon Subduing Hall's seals across generations for nothing.
The Demon Subduing Hall was no different from a warehouse stuffed full of extremely hazardous nuclear waste.
It was the world's worst 'trash bin,' holding existences better off not existing in this world, all bound and sealed together.
And yet... their goal was to stick their hand into that trash bin and pull out its contents?
"It's a complicated story if I explain the full circumstances... but to put it bluntly, it's because of the Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace. My father."
"Don't tell me he's the one stirring things up to tame one of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts inside?"
It certainly wasn't an implausible reason.
The Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace was already an exceptional beast tamer capable of subduing one of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts.
With that level of skill, it was natural he'd gain confidence.
And if he harbored ambitions as well, aiming to raze the Starpoint Sect's home base while bolstering his own forces by liberating the Demon Subduing Hall wouldn't be so strange...
"No, that's not it. He was fundamentally from the moderate faction. Far from fighting the Starpoint Sect, he actively pushed for exchanges with the Central Plains after becoming Palace Lord."
"? Wait, that doesn't add up. How could someone like that be Palace Lord and still let this mess happen?"
"You're right, it doesn't make sense. If he were still healthy, that is.
The Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace... my father in this world... is currently hovering on the brink of death."
'!!'
Baek Hyun was stunned by the utterly unexpected bombshell.
The Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, whose personal might had reached the Flower Realm and who was protected by one of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts, was now in mortal danger?
At his level, he should possess an indestructible diamond body, immune to all poisons and diseases.
Baek Hyun couldn't easily picture it, given how unbelievable it sounded.
"About a year ago, a Zhimiao Bird appeared. As Palace Lord, my father drove it off but ended up poisoned by its venom."
"Ah..."
He had no choice but to accept it from Maeng Yeon's following words.
Ten Great Ferocious Beasts, Rank 6
Zhimiao Bird (鴆鳥)
The king of all poisons in this world, the incarnation of death bearing the deadliest toxin under heaven.
"You're talking about that guy you always slotted into your build, right? The one that spread DoT damage across the battlefield."
"Yeah, exactly. Meeting it in real life was terrifying. I thought it had instant-death cheats surrounding it."
The Zhimiao Bird was a Monstrous Being so powerful that 'Harmful Bird,' the top authority in the field, used it as his second-most frequent pick in PvP.
If threatened even slightly, the Zhimiao Bird spewed a horrific poison called Zhimiao Venom from its entire body.
This venom was so lethal that even those immune to all poisons couldn't achieve full resistance. Even peak Mythic Realm experts avoided fully mature ones.
In fact, 'Harmful Bird' had a lot of fun in PvP matches where most players had reached Mythic Realm maturity specs, thanks to the Zhimiao Bird.
"Yeah... if it's the Zhimiao Bird's venom, even a Palace Lord-level warrior collapsing isn't so strange. But what does that have to do with the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace targeting the Demon Subduing Hall?"
"My father is the successor who inherited all of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace's traditions and is revered by every tribe in the South. From our perspective, he absolutely must survive... but there's no antidote for Zhimiao Venom."
Zhimiao Venom was filled with endless malice.
Like a living entity, its effects and symptoms weren't fixed to one form but adapted to the most lethal shape against the victim.
Even if an effective treatment or antibody developed, the venom would instantly 'poison' that too, rendering it useless.
Thus, no antidote for Zhimiao Venom existed.
Structurally, it was impossible.
So, for those poisoned by it, only one path to survival remained.
Physically expelling or annihilating the venom.
Easier said than done, of course—it was extraordinarily difficult, with extremely limited methods.
"Expelling Zhimiao Venom was practically impossible. Even using meditative breathing to purge it bit by bit required reaching the Manifestation Realm.
That left only annihilating it outright, which was far harder. Just as our people were despairing... someone uncovered it."
The sole existence said to be immune to the Zhimiao Bird's venom.
Baek Hyun's expression hardened as he heard that much.
Zhimiao Venom was the world's deadliest toxin, effective even against Mythic Realm warriors.
Even a Solar Body, which could incinerate most poisons instantly, needed to reach its final growth stage to burn it away.
An existence completely immune to such venom?
As far as he knew, only one such being existed.
Before the remake, it had only existed in lore, but the lore was so grandiose it was unforgettable—a colossal MacGuffin.
One of the worst Monstrous Beings called a 'heavenly calamity,' part of the Four Great Cataclysms.
"No way... right?"
"It's utterly absurd, but yes. Our people believe there's a high chance the 'Three-Legged Crow' is sealed in the Starpoint Sect's Demon Subduing Hall. That's why we're trying to awaken it to treat the Palace Lord."
Three-Legged Crow.
The moment that name pierced his ears, Baek Hyun felt his mind reel.
"What the hell is that...!? Are you insane!? Awakening the Three-Legged Crow just to cure Zhimiao Venom!? That's like burning down your house to kill a bedbug!!!"
"I think so too!! But... our people seem to believe the records are exaggerated."
"Even if the records' depiction of the Three-Legged Crow's power is only one-tenth true, the entire Yunam Province would be obliterated! What exaggeration?!"
What more needed to be said?
Explaining how dangerous the Three-Legged Crow was required just one phrase.
Ten Great Ferocious Beasts, Rank 1.
Three-Legged Crow (三足烏).
Among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts, it possessed power on a level beyond the others.
The absolute pinnacle.
The reason it claimed the top spot over numerous formidable Monstrous Beings could be summed up briefly.
Long ago, the ten suns shot down by Hou Yi.
Those ten suns... were the Three-Legged Crows.
It was a規格外 Monstrous Being wielding power akin to the sun itself, nearly incinerating all life under heaven.
And they planned to awaken such a heavenly calamity... just to cure Zhimiao Venom?
"Honestly, the records are so outlandish it's hard to take them at face value. The southern tribes think the Starpoint Sect inflated Hou Yi's feats by spreading absurd tales on purpose."
"Hoo... yeah, that's not impossible."
Baek Hyun had never encountered a Three-Legged Crow himself, so he couldn't confirm if it truly wielded that much power.
But one fact he could assert with certainty.
"Still, that doesn't change it being beyond what anyone can handle."
As the central myth forming a sect's origins, the Three-Legged Crow would be unimaginably strong.
Perhaps as powerful as those two cataclysms in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains and Tianzhu Kingdom.
If such a being were unleashed in the heart of Starpoint Mountain, the Starpoint Sect would surely be annihilated.
This had to be stopped, no matter what.
"Haa... originally, few supported that insane plan. It meant all-out war with the Starpoint Sect, plus massive risks.
But when the moderate Palace Lord collapsed, the balance in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace shifted to the hardliners. That's the problem."
The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace consisted of three main factions.
The Wild Spirit Palace, which tamed and trained Monstrous Beings.
The Poison Valley, handling deadly venomous creatures.
And the Crowgo Gate, specializing in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace's brutal yet potent external martial arts.
Among these, Wild Spirit Palace was moderate, Poison Valley neutral, and Crowgo Gate hawkish toward outsiders, maintaining a delicate balance through push and pull.
But with the Wild Spirit Palace's leader—the Palace Lord—suddenly bedridden, the palace's stance swung sharply toward the hardliners.
"At first, no one seriously considered awakening the Three-Legged Crow as a solution. But... public opinion started twisting strangely.
The hardliners, who already hated exchanges with the Central Plains, spread all sorts of nonsense about the Starpoint Sect and preached that liberating and taming the Three-Legged Crow was for my father—and all of the South.
Before long, the Starpoint Sect became our blood enemies, and the Three-Legged Crow our target for conquest to leap forward."
"...There was at least that spark of needing to save the Palace Lord. Manipulating opinion intentionally wouldn't have been hard."
It was the Wheel Temple's scheme.
For them, the ideal was the Starpoint Sect and Southern Barbarian Beast Palace destroying each other.
They must have brainwashed the palace's people with false info and delusional hopeful hypotheses passed off as truth.
Even in the modern era of advanced awareness, ridiculous fake news spread; for an isolated force in this age, any nonsense could pass as fact.
"Maybe saving my father isn't even important to the southerners anymore. They just... want to indulge in vain dreams. They're more thrilling and noble."
Similar to Nazi Germany after World War I.
Nothing was easier than redirecting internal anxiety outward.
The Wheel Temple had blinded the fearful southerners—anxious over losing their leader—and led them to leap into the flames themselves.
If unaware, it might have caused a massive disaster... a chilling situation.
'But I know in advance, so I can respond.'
Baek Hyun's golden eyes gleamed with resolve.