Chapter 54
Chapter 54
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Meeting the Parents
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After the discussions between the two forces were roughly concluded.
The leaders of each faction headed straight to the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace's base. To the most secretive place among them.
It was because of Baek Hyun's shocking statement that had come up toward the end of the meeting.
"Finally, let me ask... Can you really detoxify the Palace Lord?"
"I'll say it one last time. I can't be certain. There's just a possibility."
Baek Hyun kept responding with the same answer to Tak Mu, who anxiously repeated his questions.
Whether he could actually detoxify the jinjo's poison was merely a possibility at best, but it was certainly worth attempting.
With just the original abilities of his Solar Body, detoxifying the jinjo's poison was impossible.
However, with the power of the evolved Solar Heavenly Spirit Body, even the jinjo's poison might be within reach.
His current realm was merely at the peak level, after all.
The Solar Heavenly Spirit Body was a physique fit for a martial artist who had reached the Mythic Realm.
"Believe him, Uncle. That guy's attitude might be a bit playful, but he doesn't tell malicious lies. And besides, without him, we have no hope anyway, right?"
Meng Yeon, who had been leading the way atop Har's back, added her weight to Baek Hyun's words as she persuaded Tak Mu.
Tak Mu couldn't help but flinch at the sight.
For Yeon, who had always kept an invisible wall up against everyone, to show such trust in a boy she had met only a few days ago...
Reasonable suspicion crept up from deep in his chest, and Tak Mu sidled up to her and whispered.
"Could it be... you've fallen for him?"
"W-what are you saying, you old man...!"
Meng Yeon instantly flushed red and swatted at Tak Mu.
Tak Mu narrowed his eyes at her reaction but couldn't press her further due to the Starpoint Sect leaders nearby.
How long had they been hurrying along in the slightly awkward atmosphere?
After minimizing even rest over the past few days, they finally arrived at the secret location where the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace's Palace Lord was recuperating.
"This is the place where the Palace Lord is currently recovering."
The site was a cave sealed off by a massive boulder.
A cave hidden so ingeniously and naturally that even a martial artist with keen senses wouldn't notice it without focused scrutiny.
Baek Hyun and Mok Jin, who had come along under the pretext of escorting Mok Heon, both wore stunned expressions and clicked their tongues.
"No wonder we couldn't catch them no matter how hard we tried. They'd made hideouts in places like this. How many similar spots are there?"
"I don't know how many there are. We don't bother tracking them unless they're important locations. But now that the war is over, most hideouts should be empty."
Mok Jin—and even Baek Hyun—couldn't help but stiffen at those words.
Truly the ancestors of Vietnam, one might say.
The people here seemed born with DNA tailored for guerrilla warfare.
It was a good thing that the Starpoint Sect's elite Shoot the Sun Sword Squad had operated here; if they'd charged in relying solely on numerical superiority, the casualties could have been enormous.
"But how do we get into this cave? There doesn't seem to be any mechanism..."
"Hup!!"
-Rumble rumble rumble...!!
In response to Baek Hyun's question, Tak Mu grabbed the massive boulder blocking the entrance and shoved it aside with raw strength alone, without using any internal energy.
'...So that's how you get in.'
His imagination had fallen short.
Tak Mu gestured toward the cave's interior after clearing the entrance, and the group stepped inside.
The cave's interior was neither too spacious nor cramped.
Beyond the entrance stretched a corridor wide enough for a person to pass through comfortably.
The peculiar thing was that the farther they ventured into the depths, a foul stench assaulted their noses.
'A place for recuperation should prioritize hygiene, so this smell means...'
The condition must be worse than expected.
As that thought flashed through Baek Hyun's mind.
They finally reached a small pool at the cave's end, emanating a horrific stench.
And there, one emaciated figure lay submerged in the pool, staring vacantly at the cave ceiling with hollow eyes.
"We're here. And that is... the Palace Lord."
The identity of that gaunt, almost pitifully skeletal figure was utterly shocking.
The exceptional leader revered and trusted by all Southern Barbarians, the mightiest warrior of the south who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mok Heon—one of the Ten Great Masters of the world—when fighting alongside his monstrous being.
The Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, Meng Liao.
Yet there he was, unbelievably withered, floating like a corpse in the filthy pool water.
At that gruesome sight, Meng Yeon squeezed her eyes shut and turned away, while Tak Mu gritted his teeth and trembled faintly.
Mok Heon, unable to hide his agitation, stepped toward the pool where Meng Liao lay.
"To think Meng Liao has come to this... Why leave him in this dirty water instead of a bed?"
"It was originally... a medicinal bath prepared with countless rare herbs. But in just a few days..."
Tak Mu trailed off, turning a grim gaze toward Baek Hyun.
It was a silent plea: Can you really save him after seeing this?
The jinjo's poison, infamous as the deadliest in the world.
Even poisoned by a relatively weaker juvenile specimen, its viciousness remained unchanged.
Even the south's mystical and rare herbs could only mildly alleviate symptoms at best.
And even that soon warped into a horrific poison.
The ultimate venom where death was taken for granted upon poisoning.
Months of such poisoning.
If not for Meng Liao's extreme external martial prowess and access to countless herbs for treatment, he would have died dozens of times over in this dire situation.
Just as Mok Heon was about to urge Baek Hyun to abandon the treatment amid the miracle of his survival.
-Splash
Without a hint of hesitation, Baek Hyun rolled up his pants and plunged his bare legs into the black pool reeking of poison.
A bold act, dipping bare skin into a pool infused with the jinjo venom, even if only as a byproduct.
As Mok Heon hurriedly moved to pull Baek Hyun out.
-Sizzle...
With a sound like something burning away, the poison around Baek Hyun's submerged feet began to neutralize.
The stench filling the cave gradually faded, and the murky pool water reverted to its original clear hue.
An unbelievable sight: the supposedly incurable jinjo poison—albeit a byproduct—truly being detoxified.
"I-impossible. How is the jinjo poison...!"
"Hah... This is truly an unbelievable spectacle."
Everyone present could only gape in shock at the scene before them.
The reason a mere peak-realm Baek Hyun could neutralize the deemed incurable jinjo poison was simple.
No matter how potent the venom, it was ultimately an organic compound produced by a living being.
Excluding heavy metals like arsenic, lead, or mercury.
No poison could withstand temperatures beyond imagination... intense yang energy.
Baek Hyun was using the Solar Heavenly Spirit Body's traits to absorb all the jinjo poison qi around him into his body.
He then converted it internally into yang energy, eradicating the toxicity and absorbing only the pure qi—thus detoxifying the jinjo poison.
'Definitely... much harder to absorb than regular natural qi.'
But this much, he could manage.
An adult jinjo's poison would have been tougher, but this immature specimen's venom seemed fully neutralizable at his current level.
-Roooar rumble...!!
Having gauged it sufficiently, Baek Hyun ramped up his output and reached toward Meng Liao's body, fully consumed by the poison qi.
Intense poison qi—far beyond the byproduct—began flowing into Baek Hyun from his entire form.
Wincing at the searing pain, Baek Hyun persisted in detoxifying the jinjo poison.
Simultaneously, he infused bits of the converted yang energy into Meng Liao's body.
Normally, directly infusing yang into another would clash with their qi, causing qi deviation.
But Meng Liao's body held no qi whatsoever, so it absorbed the pure yang drops like parched earth drinking rain.
Vitality slowly returned to his corpse-like form, and his poison-ravaged organs began reviving.
However, Meng Liao's jinjo-overrun body was in far worse shape than imagined, and Baek Hyun was still unfamiliar with fully utilizing the Solar Heavenly Spirit Body, so the process dragged on.
By the time dozens of sweat beads dotted Baek Hyun's forehead and some muscle filled out Meng Liao's skeletal frame.
All the jinjo poison finally vanished from Meng Liao's body.
-Flutter...
Meng Liao's eyelids, which had seemed glued shut, slowly parted like awakening from a long slumber, revealing his pupils.
"Palace Lord!! Are you alright!?"
"F-Father..."
Tak Mu, who had anxiously watched the treatment, rushed to Meng Liao like a shot, while Meng Yeon glanced worriedly at the exhausted Baek Hyun before approaching her father as well.
They didn't share the typical father-daughter bond.
But to her, Meng Liao had been an exemplary father, master, and protector.
Before meeting Baek Hyun, he was the one she relied on most in this unfamiliar world.
Understanding that, Baek Hyun smiled warmly as he watched the touching father-daughter reunion.
"Yeon...ah..."
"Y-yes! I'm right here. Father, are you oka..."
"You, lately..."
Seeing a man?
"...Pardon?"
Everyone's thoughts froze at Meng Liao's unusually urgent tone.