Chapter 121
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Poison King (3)
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A heavy silence blanketed the gathering.
Dang Seaak had undoubtedly been tyrannical and arrogant, treating the family retainers like mere chess pieces.
Yet there was one reason he had been able to retain his power and continue reigning as the Tang Family's Elder Patriarch.
His fame in the martial world.
And his overwhelming martial prowess.
Even the current Patriarch yielded to him—what chance did ordinary retainers have?
However.
Such a man was now vomiting blood, poisoned, kneeling before a stranger in a jade mask.
Not just for Dang Narin.
For the entire Tang Family, their world was crumbling at its roots.
Yet no one stepped forward.
No, they couldn't.
Was it because they deemed the life-or-death duel fair and square?
Or because of Patriarch Dang Woojun's authoritative poise, maintaining composure even after his father's defeat?
Or perhaps neither.
Even though he had subdued Dang Seaak with poison techniques.
The jade-masked young master wasn't wearing a triumphant expression—instead, he let his lips droop sorrowfully, tears streaming from eyes laden with complex emotions.
Maybe it was all of those things.
"Krk, kuh, kuh..."
Above the thick veil of silence that still hung heavy.
Only Dang Seaak's labored breathing disturbed the stillness.
And then.
Screeech, creak—
Nearly every retainer in the Tang Family estate had gathered in the training grounds—it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say as much.
Even the guards meant to watch the entrance had torn through the shocked gap left by the Poison King's defeat, flinging open the grand doors of the training grounds.
Entering were a middle-aged man in his fifties and a woman whose features oddly resembled Dang Narin's.
Before anyone could raise their voice at this unprecedented—no, second—breach of the Tang Family grounds by outsiders in a single day.
"Please, come in, brother."
Dang Woojun's voice rippled through the grounds like a massive wave.
Dang Woolyang returned the greeting with a light nod, his gaze first flicking toward Dang Narin before settling on Dang Seaak, kneeling before the jade-masked youth.
"How... how did things come to this?"
Emotions he couldn't suppress seeped out like poison, settling heavily.
In the martial world, it's said that differences in a warrior's realm create a three-to-one gap.
Real combat brings all sorts of variables, of course.
But to subdue a single Peak expert, you need three First-Rate masters.
To take down a Transcendent, it takes three Peak experts.
And then.
All those calculations dissolve like mist the moment a warrior reaches the Fusion Realm.
The supreme vista visible only to those who bear starlight within, having fully refined it as their own—the endpoint where the path of martial arts they pursue is wholly embodied.
The unique heartscape.
That was why Dang Seaak was absolutely certain he could never lose, no matter the variables.
His unique heartscape was Heart-Soul Insight.
Reading everything his target feared like an open book, finding the gaps, binding and controlling them cunningly.
Since unique heartscapes arise from innate temperament and life experiences, if Geum Sihyeon had pierced its essence, he might have dismissed it as 'gaslighting'.
However.
Even after manifesting his unique heartscape, Dang Seaak could glean nothing from the jade-masked youth.
How could he find flaws or weaknesses in a heartscape as calm, vast, and serene as the ocean?
That psychological shake was his first downfall.
The unidentified poison burrowing into his body, binding him without release—that was the second.
A lethal toxin more insidious, perilous, and tenaciously adherent than any he'd ever handled.
If granted the ability to wield such a poison, he could rule not just Sichuan, but the entire Central Plains.
Thus.
"Kuh, kek... fool... ish child..."
Even as his vitality ebbed, Dang Seaak let out a sneer.
The youth had displayed a supreme technique beyond even his imitation, but confirming it as the jade-masked one's best allowed it.
In truth, Geum Sihyeon's energy core was nearly depleted, making Dang Seaak's deduction spot-on.
Warriors always keep one life-saving ace.
As the Tang Family's Elder Patriarch.
And as one deeply involved in the Azure Heaven Society's operations.
He carried the perfectly refined Cataclysmic Heaven Qi Pill—no solitude, no aftereffects.
"How... how did things come to this?"
Seizing the moment when all eyes turned to the uninvited guest—his discarded, incompetent son.
Dang Seaak swallowed the Cataclysmic Heaven Qi Pill from his bosom, suppressing the poison spreading through his body as best he could.
Now, with this.
Using his amplified inner power as a base, dispatch this whelp and the worthless son who came seeking death—
"Keuk—?!"
The instant the pill's energy spread through his body.
Dang Seaak's thoughts froze amid the agony boiling throughout his frame.
For the first time in his life, a pain as if worms devoured his flesh and tore his soul—vision blacking out—
"Oh my, you went and ate it after all. I knew you would. Excellent."
Only when the jade-masked youth's mocking whisper pierced the gap of his still-open ears and reached his mind.
"Kek, keuk—"
Did Dang Seaak finally grasp that he'd been thoroughly played on a meticulously designed board.
"Don't approach! The Poison King is lost in Qi Deviation—he can't control his poison now. Patriarch, seal his channels!"
In the immobilizing darkness.
Dang Seaak felt a strand of utterly pure energy pierce into his lower abdomen.
And then.
"—! ———!"
All the poison he'd accumulated his entire life was sucked out as if into a vortex—Dang Seaak screamed with all his might.
But his cries went unheard by anyone.
Going according to plan.
I desperately held back the grin tugging at my lips.
...Mancheon Hwau had been far more threatening than expected, so I'd overdone it and wasted too much of the pure poison early.
Still, the outcome hadn't strayed far from the overall picture I'd drawn.
I hadn't imagined he'd shamelessly gobble down an outburst pill despite being Fusion Realm caliber.
But thanks to that, my pre-laid contingency shone.
Honestly, get fooled once—fine. Twice? No way.
With the pill's ingredients already analyzed alongside God-nim, I'd prepared a counter poison that would turn lethal upon combination in the body.
Well.
Thanks to it, I could finally replenish my sorely depleted poison reserves with fresh toxin slurped right back in.
Of course, incomparable to the pure stuff, but poison's all about how you use it.
Absolutely not intentional, but as a bonus, after slurping some inner power from his energy core too.
Confirming the poison leaking from the rampaging Dang Seaak's body had stopped, I remodeled my persona back into the jade-masked youth.
...If there's a most critical moment in dismantling the Tang leaf.
It's right now.
"...It's done. No threat to his life. However, he won't recover his former prowess."
The Tang Family retainers, who hadn't evacuated thanks to Dang Woojun's aura, all stiffened.
Even a rotten old monster like him commanded respect from his own—natural reaction.
For his atrocities to be fully grasped and him utterly toppled, more time was needed.
Handing Dang Seaak over to the approaching Tang warriors—likely from the elders' faction.
Boom—!
I stomped fiercely, drawing all eyes.
"Today, I stand here as a member of the Tang Family to restore it to normalcy. If anyone objects to this duel, step forward now."
Silence lingered briefly.
Good.
Even if it's an old coot whose unique heartscape didn't even activate before collapsing.
No one would try to tarnish this body's feat of one-on-one defeating a Fusion Realm expert.
"However, harming our sky-like Elder Patriarch is undoubtedly a grave sin. And though you wouldn't know... Elder Dang Woolyang, brother to the Patriarch, who just arrived—his energy core was crippled by me as well."
Murmurs descended where silence had reigned.
...Yeah.
Even I think it's a bit much.
A scumbag who crippled both father and son... future grandfather-in-law and father-in-law's cores simultaneously?
This horrific fact mustn't be etched in the Murim Wiki.
Therefore.
I'll sever the chain of hatred here.
"Thus... I dare confess, as Dang Narin's betrothed, that I am unqualified. What son-in-law would cripple his father-in-law's core?"
This is Zero Requiem.
No—Jade-Masked Young Noble Requiem.
Expose the shame, cleanse the shame.
Thus, as an entity who can never become an insider, erase the jade-masked youth to wash away the Tang Family's accumulated hatred.
"Kek, kuh...!"
For this moment, I spat out the congealed blood I'd built up during the fierce clash.
Staging a scene where I looked fatally wounded to anyone watching.
"...My face in the Tang Family... ends here. All of you, behold the hidden truth... comfort those who've suffered... kek, keuk..."
Once isn't enough.
Twice it is.
"...Please, let the Tang Family be reborn as a just place... proudly as members of the orthodox sects..."
With those words.
I slowly walked toward the still-open entrance of the training grounds.
No one barred my way.
"Y-Young Noble...!"
Dang Narin's and my lady's choked sobs brushed my ears, but I forced a reassuring smile.
"...Was this necessary?"
Not a rebuke, but laced with thick regret—Elder Dang Woolyang's voice I endured silently too.
Stepping out of the training grounds.
With this.
I had destroyed the world.
And created a new one...
Outside the gate.
"Geum... Jade-Masked Young Noble, are you alright?"
"Such a thing, brother-in-law...!"
Unhak and Nangong Hwi waited, having subdued and bound all the men I'd sent to track Elder Dang Woolyang.
Friends really are best kept close.
So.
Now.
"Let's... rest a bit..."
I granted brief respite.
To the thoughts and body I'd forcibly held together since long ago.