Chapter 105
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: What I Want to Protect (1)
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Hurriedly, we slipped out of the prospective in-laws' place with Myo Narang and Sojeo.
“Hoo...”
The peaceful pastoral scene, bathed in the warm glow of a serene sunset just moments ago, had vanished somewhere.
In its place stretched a hellscape that looked like the Demon King of Chaos could descend at any moment.
“Narang! Take care of the kids!”
“Yes!”
Myo Hwaseo urgently floated up into the air, rolled up her sleeves, and began focusing her power.
A sacred energy spread out in all directions around her.
It clashed head-on with the thick demonic energy oozing from the cave where the Black Nether Spirit lurked, creating a massive shockwave.
Rumble...!
Lightning bolts infused with divine power rained down sporadically from the darkened sky.
...Indeed, Ramju Thunder.
“Young master, let's go!”
“No, I need to meet the Black Nether Spirit.”
Even with my Moon Harmony Divine Eye, I hadn't been able to fully gauge the Black Nether Spirit's power until now.
Partly because it wasn't in human form, but mostly because the spiritual energy it harbored was so immense.
To my eyes, it appeared almost like a towering mountain.
But as that energy grew fainter by the second,
I sensed another presence through my Moon Harmony Divine Eye, as if it were absorbing that energy.
The culprit behind this mess, no doubt.
“Huh? But it's dangerous...!”
I silently lifted my head to gaze up at Myo Hwaseo again, and soon Myo Narang and Sojeo's eyes followed mine.
Staring at Myo Hwaseo's face—her usual cute, smirking expression gone, replaced by an unprecedented look of grim determination as she poured all her mental energy into the task.
“If we don't resolve this, even Lady Myo Hwaseo could be in danger.”
I murmured softly, laced with resolve.
“Ugh... You have to be safe, absolutely safe! Run if it's dangerous! For my sake, please!”
Myo Narang squeezed my hand tightly once, her face on the verge of tears.
Then she gathered up the trembling animal friends and began moving away from the source of the poison.
...Not quite to the point of defying death.
But daring to threaten my friend's home.
And my prospective in-laws' place, no less.
I at least needed to see the face of whatever bastard was responsible.
...Though I had a slight suspicion of who it might be, I hoped I was wrong.
“Wolfie. Take care of Narang and Sojeo.”
“Kyawoo...”
Even Wolfie couldn't get too close to that place without being overwhelmed by the poison and dying in an instant.
As it waddled away, constantly looking back at me with those pitiful eyes, I flashed it a confident smile.
Then I gripped tightly the bow-sword I'd casually set aside during my stay at the Beast Palace.
: : What in the world... are you... doing to me── : :
An unprecedented agony surged from the Dragon Pearl embedded in its chest, coursing through its entire body, causing the Black Nether Spirit to writhe.
Groooan, groooan...!
With every twist of the Black Nether Spirit's body, the cave it inhabited screamed as if collapsing.
It felt like the poison energy it had kept under tight control until now was slipping away in an instant.
Fortunately,
Myo Hwaseo had quickly noticed the anomaly and was using her lightning power and spiritual energy to suppress it once more.
But if he didn't swiftly subdue the man before him, this whole area would be reduced to ashes, and it would meet its end.
However.
“...I'm sorry for using your power in such an ugly way. In return, I'll take on all your karma.”
The man wore a pained expression as well.
As if he fully understood the catastrophe his actions would unleash.
And as if he knew exactly how heavy a burden it was to shoulder the karma of the Black Nether Spirit with a mere human body.
Yes.
Dying like this anyway.
Wasn't that what I wanted?
How long had it been since I'd lived a life that wasn't truly living, unable to even die?
The faces of the innocent, kind Beast Palace folk I'd torn apart with my own hands still flickered before my closed eyes.
Yes, surely that's how it was...
Yet why did Myo Hwaseo and Myo Narang's smiling faces,
And Geum Sihyeon's sly grin, loom even larger?
“Kyaaaaak!”
Even amid its writhing agony, the Black Nether Spirit gathered its strength and spewed a powerful venom at the man.
Boooom, boom...!
At the same time, it twisted its body massively, trying to bring down the entire cave.
But.
The man's body showed no reaction whatsoever, even after taking the venom head-on.
“Millennia Serpent Poison... It's certainly different from any other poison.”
: : How...?: :
It was impossible.
Even Geum Sihyeon, who boasted of his Immunity to All Poisons, had recoiled in disgust after merely touching the venom I'd spewed.
For him to take it full in the face and remain unscathed...
“──!”
The Black Nether Spirit's thoughts cut off as a massive shock hit from the Dragon Pearl being pulled out.
Its body began shrinking, dwindling,
Collapsing to the point where it could no longer be called an imugi.
“Hoo...”
The Poison Demon gazed alternately at the small pearl clutched in his hand and the slowly dying imugi, sighing with a gloomy expression.
A fierce wave of guilt washed over him.
But it was too late to turn back now.
Feeling the venom soaking his entire body—not just his lungs deeply, but circulating madly through passages that could no longer be called blood vessels.
Without hesitation, he sliced open his abdomen with a dagger.
Shhhh...!
Black venom gushed out, melting the rock beneath his feet.
Into his flesh—where his dantian once was, now shredded and left with only a solitary poison core—he embedded the Dragon Pearl.
“Kughhh...!”
The artificially created, imperfect Poison Vein Body couldn't fully accommodate the Dragon Pearl's terrifying energy and rebelled violently.
But as he focused his mind and recited the incantation Blood Lord had taught him, the Dragon Pearl began fusing bit by bit with his poison core.
Amid the excruciating pain,
The Poison Demon's consciousness grew hazy.
Suddenly, his master's face came to mind.
Looking back, he had sinned against his master three times.
The first, when he defied his master's pleas and left his side.
The second, after pledging himself to the demonic cult, when he heeded Blood Lord's words and twisted his medical arts toward unrighteous ends.
And now, the third.
But.
Could hatred truly fade with time?
Could vengeance be forgotten amid pain?
His mind still vividly held the happy smiles his wife had given him, the sight of his daughters laughing merrily as they ran into his arms.
His mind still clearly recalled his wife, clutching their second daughter, leaping off a cliff so as not to burden him; his eldest daughter being dragged away, weeping before his very eyes.
No matter how heavenly his master's grace,
Could it surpass the bonds of blood?
Because he could forsake even his flesh and blood, he had seized this opportunity.
The fringes of his drifting consciousness touched upon hatred.
The man who had never once smiled at him.
The man who, for the family's future, hadn't hesitated to use him as a test subject for poison arts.
And finally, the man who sought to soak not just his son, but even his granddaughter—a mere three-year-old—in venom.
“Tang... Saeak...!”
As the long-festering hatred welled up and spilled from his lips,
His body finally fully accepted the Dragon Pearl.
The distinction between meridians and blood vessels vanished.
The line between inner energy and poison qi blurred away.
This, no doubt,
Was the completion of that cursed father's long-sought Poison Vein Body.
...And that completed Poison Human would end his life.
By his guess, he wouldn't last more than ten days and nights in this state before succumbing.
But.
He would hold out long enough to race silently to the family estate.
“Ugh, ugh...”
As the Poison Demon gathered his strength to rise, a faint groan reached his ears.
It was the imugi from which he'd taken the Dragon Pearl.
“Hoo...”
The Poison Demon tore off a rugged portion of his poison core—once part of the Dragon Pearl—and affixed it to the imugi's chest.
This should suffice; it wouldn't hinder his revenge, and the imugi could continue living.
A self-mocking thought crossed his mind: was he bestowing some petty mercy on the creature that had led him to this peril?
But if there was one last shred of humanity he could claim,
It was that he had never passed by a patient in need.
Veiling his great evil in hypocrisy, the Poison Demon exited the cave.
The lingering aftershocks of the rampaging Dragon Pearl's poison qi still fiercely shook the heavens.
Everywhere the Poison Demon's footsteps touched,
Grass, flowers, and trees withered as if their life were being siphoned away, turning ashen gray.
And.
Right ahead, where his steps would soon arrive,
“...Senior, I trust you've been well.”
The man he somehow felt he'd meet again.
And.
His fellow disciple, likely sharing the same medical master.
Geum Sihyeon's figure came into view—not with his usual sly grin,
but gazing this way with an expression tinged with a thread of sorrow.
His eyes held a reproving glint, as if questioning why he had chosen such a path.
But.
What must be done was revenge.
What must be discarded was himself.
“You rascal. Life flows on regardless of my will. In a life where I couldn't protect a single thing, I'm off to meet the man who stole my spring.”
Feeling his once snow-white hair—from grief, pain, regret, and helplessness—gradually regain its cursed original hue,
The Poison Demon,
Tang Wuryang, enveloped his hands and entire body in poison qi.
“Therefore, I shall become a martial artist of the world once more.”