Chapter 35: One Body, Four Energies
Chapter 35
One Body, Four Energies
Whoooosh!
Kwaaaa!
It felt as though a blazing fire was burrowing through his body.
He could distinctly trace the path of Angsinru's roots as they slithered through his organs.
For a moment, he even hallucinated that he hadn't swallowed the roots of Gihwai-cho but had instead devoured a venomous dragon manifesting in the mortal world.
Then—
Kwa-ddeuk!
Kwa-ga!
"—!!"
An excruciating pain unlike anything he had ever experienced before engulfed him.
Having lived through the torment of his congenital poison energy in his past life, Se-woon had thought himself numb to suffering.
But this was on an entirely different level.
'Ghk!'
The agony surpassed even the sum of every seizure he had ever endured.
It was so overwhelming that he couldn't even scream.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness from the extreme pain, Se-woon gritted his teeth and endured.
'......I can't let it end like this.'
Chak-chak!
With great effort, he adjusted his posture, as though standing before a blacksmith's forge, assuming the stance of a master craftsman.
Slowly closing his eyes, Se-woon focused on the flow of his internal energy.
Swoooosh!
The power of the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil unfolded through his entire meridian system.
The remnants of his internal energy, faint as they were, began to move—agonizingly slow.
Chwaaa!
The circulation of his energy, woven into the shape of a tree throughout his body, cautiously activated.
The pure energy of the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil gently enveloped the venomous essence of Angsinru's roots.
For a moment, it seemed as though stability was returning—
Kwa-ga!
Whoooosh!
'Ghk!!'
The venom of Angsinru's roots, as if disgusted by the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil's energy wrapping around it, burned it all away and began devouring it whole.
At the same time, a horrifying pain—as though every blood vessel in his body was melting in lava—assaulted Se-woon.
In an instant, all color drained from his face.
"Cough!"
Unable to hold back any longer, he vomited blood.
Dark crimson liquid trickled down the corners of his mouth.
His entire body trembled violently as if seized by spasms, and his consciousness kept fading.
Yet Se-woon refused to withdraw the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil.
To an outsider, it would have seemed like a foolish act of self-inflicted torment.
But Se-woon had anticipated this.
'......Just a little more. Just a little more.'
As if responding to his desperate will—
Kwaaaa!
The venomous energy of Angsinru's roots, using the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil's energy as fuel, surged forward relentlessly until it finally reached its final destination.
The lower dantian.
Kwa-deuk!
There, the congenital poison energy, lying in wait like a gaping maw, swallowed the venomous essence of Angsinru whole.
Whoooong!
A sense of euphoria from the poison-infused energy seemed to transmit to Se-woon.
His congenital poison energy was advancing to an entirely new stage.
But Angsinru's venom wasn't idle either.
After absorbing the Eight Great Extreme Poisons he had stolen from Dokma and the venom of Angsinru's flower—
Kwa-jik!
It sank its fangs into the congenital poison energy and began devouring its toxicity.
Perhaps because of this, Angsinru's venom rapidly mutated into something even more terrifying.
Swoooosh!
Kwaaaa!
The two energies gnawed at each other's tails, swelling in size.
This was nothing like the earlier annihilation of the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil's energy.
Realizing the situation, Se-woon understood that his life now hung by a thread.
If Angsinru's venom completed its absorption, his body would dissolve into a puddle of blood under its extreme toxicity.
If his congenital poison energy devoured everything, his blood vessels would explode—not from Qi Deviation, but from complete annihilation, leaving not even a corpse behind.
'Right now, I need to weaken Angsinru's power a little. Good. Now, reverse it—suppress the congenital poison energy's force...'
Thus, even amidst unbearable agony, Se-woon concentrated his entire mind, barely maintaining the precarious balance between the two energies.
It was a deadly puzzle where a single mistake meant certain death, yet Se-woon remained utterly calm, meticulously working toward the solution.
And finally, his efforts bore fruit.
Swoooosh!
Se-woon's excruciating pain rapidly subsided.
There was only one reason for this change.
'Divine Fusion!'
The boundary between his congenital poison energy and Angsinru's venom had vanished—they had merged into a single, complete energy.
Swoooosh!
Chwaa!
A mystical dark-green radiance began emanating from Se-woon's tranquil body.
The dazzling streams of light soon gathered above his head, taking form.
Chwaaaa!
A single dark-green flower bud, in full bloom, revealed its resplendent beauty.
It was the Poison Flower Convergence—a phenomenon only seen when a master of venomous arts surpassed the threshold of the pinnacle realm.
'Ah...'
Se-woon exhaled in awe without realizing it.
He had crossed the threshold into the pinnacle realm far earlier than in his past life.
Moreover, his Reverse Heaven Energy, which had stagnated at the second stage, had finally reached the third.
Naturally, this outcome was born from the fusion of his congenital poison energy and Angsinru's venom—an unknown energy unlike any other.
No, it deserved a new name.
'Divine Poison Energy.'
A name so arrogant it bordered on blasphemy, invoking divinity itself.
Yet no other term could describe this power.
Now, Se-woon's energies could be distilled into four:
If the Golden Armored Dragon Pupil's energy formed sturdy roots throughout his meridians,
And Reverse Heaven Energy twisted them into the trunk of a tree,
Then this unknown energy was like the blood flowing from roots to trunk—nourishing the entire system.
'And the blood of a tree is water—its life essence.'
Koo-goong!
The Divine Poison Energy violently slammed itself against the walls of his deformed lower dantian.
It yearned to surge beyond the meridians, toward the middle and upper dantians.
Goong!
Koo-goong!
The congenital poison energy and Angsinru's venom—
Two energies of equally vicious nature, now fused into one.
The Divine Poison Energy raged without restraint.
Each time it crashed against the lower dantian's walls, it felt as though his entire body was shattering—
'Just one. Just one path.'
Se-woon endured without a single groan.
And finally—
Puh-fung!
A single narrow passage tore open in his sealed dantian.
—!!
Through that sole pathway, the energy surged beyond his meridians, reaching even the upper dantian.
The Divine Poison Energy raced from roots to trunk, eager to bloom into radiant petals.
It nourished the Golden Armor Energy in his meridians,
And the Reverse Heaven Energy in his upper dantian,
Like a mother's amniotic fluid, giving without reserve before returning to the lower dantian.
'Now, back to the lower dantian!'
This was Se-woon's first complete energy cycle—something he had never achieved in either life.
Drip.
Drip-drip.
Yet the amount of energy pooled in his lower dantian was barely a few drops.
The newly opened path was narrow—too narrow for most of the energy to pass through.
As a result, the Divine Poison Energy properly stored in his lower dantian amounted to less than a year's worth.
'It's enough!'
But Se-woon felt no disappointment.
From absolute impossibility, he had carved out a single possibility—the ability to use his dantian at all.
He knew just how monumental this breakthrough would be in the future.
Having completed his first energy accumulation, Se-woon slowly opened his eyes.
Koo-goo-goo!
Kwaaaa!
The sight before him was despair incarnate.
The spatial fissures within the concealment formation had spread like ink, staining everything black.
Except for the single spot where Se-woon stood, the entire formation was collapsing.
The time left until total destruction—mere moments.
Yet even in this dire situation—
"Hmm."
Se-woon's face showed no trace of fear or panic.
Gazing at the fissures, he clenched his fist.
"Then, shall we go?"
Chwa-ra-ra!
Dark-green energy coiled around his right fist as the Golden Threads of Heavenly Net gathered, swirling violently.
'Ah, why...?'
Abbess Abbess Geumhwa stared into the abyss-like cave, her heart aching with helplessness.
Before Dokma's hideout stood the vanguard of the Sichuan Tang Family and the Emei Sect.
"Sniff... Sniff... It's all my fault. If only I had been faster... If only I had brought Master sooner..."
Cheong Yeon, her feet bloodied from running nonstop, had gathered everyone here.
Thanks to Ha-young, who had infiltrated the cave with Se-woon, they knew they held the numerical advantage—yet none dared step inside.
All because of Dokma's concealment formation.
"Dammit, why aren't we going in?!"
"If we delay any longer, the Young Lord will be in real danger!"
"No, listen—we can dismantle the formation from the outside!"
Meanwhile, the branch leader of the Murim Alliance's Sichuan branch wore a troubled expression.
Sent as reinforcements at Abbess Geumhwa's request, he was supposedly an expert in dismantling formations.
Yet he kept making excuses, refusing to enter the cave.
Even a civilian knew that dismantling a formation properly required examining it from within.
"You bastard! Is the Murim Alliance betraying its own allies now?!"
"Damn right, you bastards! We're abandoning him!"
"What?!"
"How the hell am I supposed to go in there?! It's already gone berserk—beyond salvage!"
"......!"
The shamelessness of his words left even Abbess Geumhwa speechless.
But before he could finish—
Thud!
A sharp impact cut him off mid-sentence.
"Ghk—!"
The branch leader's jaw shattered as he was sent flying, tumbling across the ground.
"Worthless trash."
Abbess Geumhwa's icy voice dripped with contempt.
Then, chaos erupted from Tang Mu-yeol's side.
"Lord, you mustn't!"
"Step aside."
"Please reconsider. If both you and the Young Lord perish, our family is finished."
"I said, step aside."
Tang Mu-yeol, half-mad with worry for his son, tried to charge into the cave, only for Tang Bi, leader of the Tang Elite Unit, to block him.
Seeing this, Abbess Geumhwa stepped forward.
"Lord Tang, stand down. I will accompany the Family Head."
"—!"
"Abbess, you—"
Before Tang Bi could react—
"......Lord Tang, please step back."
"Master, I'm coming too. My eyes will be of help."
Tang Se-rin and Ha-young also stepped forward.
Faced with their resolve, Tang Bi lowered her head helplessly—
Kwaaaaang!
Kwa-ga-ga!
—!!
?!
A deafening explosion erupted from the cave behind them.
Koo-goo-goo!
The cavern began collapsing in a catastrophic landslide.
As the massive cave crumbled, everyone stared in horror—
Swoooosh!
Kwa-ga-ga!
—!!
'This poison energy—!'
An overwhelming surge of venomous energy erupted from within the devastation.
Thud. Thud.
Through the dust-filled haze, a single figure emerged, walking steadily forward.
The sheer, indescribable toxicity made his identity unmistakable.
"Battle positions—!"
Shing!
At Tang Mu-yeol's furious command, the Tang Family warriors drew their weapons.
Abbess Geumhwa, too, gathered immense energy in her palms—
"Stop! It's not Dokma!"
—!!
Ha-young's sudden shout froze them all.
Her Spirit Eyes had pierced through the dust, recognizing the figure first.
Swoooosh!
As the dust settled, the figure became clear.
"Cough... Father..."
"Se-woon!"
"Young Lord Tang!"
Se-woon staggered forward, his body drenched in blood.
Dark spots covered his skin—undeniable signs of the Eight Great Extreme Poisons, specifically the aftermath of Ban Gu Blood Poison.
"Agh! It's Ban Gu Blood Poison!"
"Fall back! Everyone, fall back!"
The Murim Alliance members recoiled in terror.
But—
Whoosh!
Abbess Geumhwa, Tang Mu-yeol,
Tang Se-rin, Ha-young, and Cheong Yeon—
All five rushed toward Se-woon without hesitation.
And then—
"You... shouldn't have come..."
With those words, Se-woon collapsed into their arms.
But none of them noticed—
The faint, triumphant smile curling at the corners of his lips.