Chapter 41
Episode 41
Siblings (2)
The inside of the abandoned mine was pitch black, without a single ray of light.
Back when this place was still operational as an iron mine, lanterns for the miners burned ceaselessly along the walls. But now, they lay extinguished, covered in dust.
Whoosh!
At that moment, a flame flickered to life, revealing the figures of two people.
Tang Se-rin and Se-woon, each holding a torch, walked side by side.
The "outing" Se-woon had mentioned turned out to be an exploration of the abandoned mine they had acquired from the Murim Alliance.
Thud, thud.
Both of them silently advanced deeper inside.
Hmm... Why did he ask for this useless place?
Se-rin couldn't shake off the doubt lingering in her heart toward her younger brother.
Truthfully, she had been the one who most staunchly supported his decisions within the family.
Even when others questioned Se-woon's judgment, she had been the one who believed in him the most.
But this time... I really don't get it.
Yet, no matter how much she pondered, she couldn't fathom why he had chosen this place as his reward.
There was no denying that this mine had once been a high-value site when it was still active.
The quality of the ore had been excellent, and its production volume had been outstanding.
But that was a story from a distant past—before she was even born.
The iron deposits had long been exhausted, and this place had become nothing more than a derelict mine.
Countless merchant groups had purchased it in vain hopes of reopening it, only to fail every single time.
Without exception, every one of them went bankrupt.
They all suffered devastating financial losses, weeping as they resold the mine.
The thought that her younger brother might become the next victim made Se-rin's heart skip a beat.
He's not the type to be swayed by false hopes...
Lost in thought—
Thud.
"Ah."
Something caught her foot.
She had accidentally tripped over a discarded pickaxe left behind by a miner.
As she stumbled—
Whoosh!
"Be careful, Noona."
"Ah, sorry."
Se-woon moved like the wind, steadying her before she could fall.
"I'll take the lead from now on. Follow behind me."
"Huh? There's no need—"
Ignoring her protest, Se-woon stepped forward.
Se-rin's eyes landed on his back—noticeably broader after relentless training.
Even though he was her younger brother, he looked dependable.
Time truly was astonishing.
When had that tiny little boy grown so big?
As she followed him, memories of the past began to flicker before her eyes.
To be honest, Se-rin had hated Se-woon intensely as a child.
"Go away."
"Waaah!"
It was nothing like how things were now.
It hadn't always been that way, of course.
At first, their sibling bond had been so strong that even the household servants smiled fondly at them.
But as she grew older, her resentment festered.
"Se-woon is sick."
"You're his older sister—you should understand."
A household raising a sick child inevitably poured all its love and attention into that child.
Se-woon had been born with a congenital disability, and their parents' focus had been entirely on him.
Whenever Se-rin tried to voice her own need for attention and affection, she was only met with expectations of understanding.
She was just a child too.
So she gave up.
She pretended not to care and pushed everyone away.
She stopped showing her emotions to anyone.
But—
"Waaah! Noona!"
"Noona! Hehe."
No matter how much she pushed him away—
No matter how harshly she treated him—
Her little brother kept coming back to her.
Always with the same bright smile.
And then, one day—
Annoyed by his persistence since morning, she had shut her door and pretended not to be there.
After her exhausted brother finally left, silence filled the room.
"...I wish I were an only child."
Without realizing it, she had let those terrible words slip.
And then—it happened.
"Aaaah! Young Master!"
"Ah—ah! What do we do?!"
"Call the Divine Doctor! Call the Divine Doctor now!"
The household was thrown into chaos.
Se-woon had gone to the blacksmith's forge and suffered severe burns on one arm.
That day had been the first time he had secretly ventured there.
At the time, his congenital condition had been at its worst.
A burn could disrupt his qi flow and endanger his life.
Lying on the sickbed, his face was deathly pale.
His frail body trembled violently.
The thought that he might truly leave her side—
Her mind went blank, and her chest caved in.
Because she had made that awful wish.
If she had just opened the door, he wouldn't have gotten hurt.
Everything felt like her fault.
As she trembled in guilt and fear—
Squeeze.
A tiny, fragile hand—
Her brother's hand—grasped hers.
"Th... this... is... for... you."
Clutched in his palm was a crudely welded piece of metal.
That day had been her birthday—one she had completely forgotten.
Se-woon had gone to the forge for one reason: to make her a hidden weapon as a gift.
Even though his entire body must have been in excruciating pain—
Even though he was teetering on the brink of death—
The moment she saw him smiling at her just like always, tears poured from her eyes.
And she swore to the heavens—
Even if it cost her life—
In this lifetime, she would protect this kind-hearted child to the very end.
Scrape.
Suddenly, Se-woon stopped walking.
Huh?
Se-rin snapped out of her thoughts.
She was about to ask why he had stopped—
"—!"
But she didn't need to.
She hastily covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve.
A terrifying miasma of poison was seeping from the ground ahead.
Had she stepped there carelessly, she would have collapsed from poisoning on the spot.
Then, Se-woon's voice reached her through Sound Transmission.
[Noona, activate the Poison Heart Art.]
[Got it.]
Following his words, she swiftly circulated the Tang Family's Poison Heart Art—a mid-tier poison technique.
However, since all higher-tier poison arts had been lost, the Poison Heart Art was effectively the most advanced poison technique the Tang Family possessed.
Poison Phoenix. Poison Executioner.
As her epithets suggested, poison arts were among her talents.
Though the Poison Heart Art was something most wouldn't master before the age of forty, she had already perfected it at a young age.
"...It's not enough?"
Even at her level, suppressing the mine's poison was impossible.
This was a venom beyond what the Poison Heart Art could handle—an extreme toxin.
This is dangerous.
Her heart sank.
Se-woon had only just recovered from Dokma's attack—and now they were facing this?
Just as she was about to urge him to retreat—
[Noona, from now on, circulate your qi exactly as I say.]
[...What?]
Se-woon's sudden instruction left her bewildered.
And for good reason.
As far as she knew, Se-woon's poison arts were nowhere near her level.
Yet here he was, telling her to circulate the Poison Heart Art along a completely new meridian path.
It sounded absurd—
[Draw the poison in through the Jingming acupoint on the Yangqiao meridian. Then fuse it with your true qi—]
[—!]
Se-woon continued.
The Jingming acupoint was located near the inner corner of the eye.
But the Poison Heart Art traditionally began at the Shuigou acupoint—the midpoint of the philtrum.
The starting point was entirely different.
If she recklessly circulated her qi like this, she would undoubtedly suffer a Qi Deviation.
What should she do?
As Se-rin hesitated in confusion—
[Noona, trust me.]
[...!]
With those words—
Se-rin immediately stopped doubting and tightly shut her eyes.
Whoosh!
She began circulating her qi exactly as instructed.
Sizzle!
At the same time, a miraculous change began within her body.
What in the—?!
Se-rin was stunned.
Originally, the Poison Heart Art was a martial art centered on resisting poison.
It allowed the user to handle toxic substances without being poisoned, enabling them to freely wield venomous weapons.
But following Se-woon's method, the art exhibited an entirely different power.
Hummm!
With a resonant hum, the poison lingering in the air slowly seeped into her body.
The poison is accumulating inside me—!
Her inner energy began mastering the absorbed poison completely.
Rather than resisting it, she was subduing the poison—turning it into an extension of herself and storing it within her body.
After a considerable amount of time, Se-rin finally opened her eyes.
She slowly clenched and unclenched her fist.
The poison within her body moved freely at her will.
Stunned by the unbelievable sight, she turned to her younger brother.
"...Se-woon, how on earth—?"
"It's nothing special, Noona."
"How is this nothing special?!"
"Hmm... I just incorporated the qi flow Abbess Geumhwa used when she expelled Dokma's poison into the Poison Heart Art."
"—!"
She was so shocked she could only blink rapidly.
This was far from insignificant, no matter how casually Se-woon acted.
He claimed he had merely blended the Emei Sect's martial principles into the Poison Heart Art, but the reality was entirely different.
This can't even be called the Poison Heart Art anymore.
For one, the meridians used were completely altered.
Its effects were entirely different—superior in every way.
This was the creation of an entirely new martial art.
And—
Those capable of such feats were known by another title in the martial world.
"...Does Se-woon have the talent of a Grandmaster?
Creating martial arts was not something achievable with ordinary talent.
Only the greatest of geniuses could accomplish such a feat.
Those who could establish an entire sect from a single martial art were called "Grandmasters" by the martial world.
Se-rin was speechless as she stared at her younger brother.
Meanwhile, Se-woon—completely oblivious to his sister's awe—let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Phew... At least I managed to convince her somehow.
Of course, what he had told her was a blatant lie.
After all, Abbess Geumhwa's qi technique focused on enhancing the body's regenerative abilities—not countering poison.
She'd freak out if she knew it was Dokma's technique.
The new qi circulation method he had taught her was based not on Geumhwa's arts—but on the martial arts of Poison Demon Yayul Seung.
The principle of storing poison within the body was something Se-woon had learned from Dokma in his past life.
But he hadn't taught his sister the wicked techniques of the Five Poison Sect outright.
Besides, this principle was something Dokma stole from the Tang Family's lost poison art—the Ten Thousand Poison Art.
After becoming Dokma's disciple, Se-woon had learned one thing:
Dokma had been the one who plundered and hoarded the most lost poison arts of the Tang Family, scattered throughout the martial world's underworld—including the Black Market.
Driven by his inferiority complex toward Tang Ui-tae, Dokma had patched together his own techniques by grafting the Tang Family's poison arts and the Five Poison Sect's methods haphazardly.
The Ten Thousand Poison Art—the pinnacle of the Tang Family's poison techniques—was among them.
But forcibly fused techniques always had flaws.
In his past life, that very flaw had played a key role in Dokma's miserable demise.
Well, that's not important right now.
"Se-woon, just how—"
As Se-rin tried to question him, Se-woon quickly cut her off.
"Now, the poison will actually benefit you. If you accumulate a bit more, your cultivation might even advance."
"—!"
Instantly, the mention of "advancing her cultivation" captivated her.
She was, after all, a martial artist at heart.
And so, when Se-woon added—
"Shall we go deeper in?"
Se-rin could only nod as if entranced.