Exposing the Venom
Do you know what a fountain is?
It is a device that forces water to shoot upward by applying pressure through a narrow opening.
A challenge to the natural order, allowing life and matter—otherwise bound eternally to the earth—to soar in a display of wonder.
Thus, a fountain is both a marvel and a terror.
It is more than enough to strike shock and dread into those who witness it for the first time.
This is precisely why the idiom "fountain of blood" is so commonly used.
Spurt!
Blood erupted from the carotid artery.
A headless torso swayed, robbed of its master.
A severed head rolled across the floor...
It was a scene so utterly surreal that no one could process it immediately.
But then.
"Aaahhh!"
Lady Oh, the first to snap back to reality, let out a shriek that was half-scream, half-convulsion, and threw herself over the corpse of her son, Jegal Wi-yeon.
"Wi-yeon! Wi-yeon...!"
Even though pressing a severed head back onto a corpse could never bring it back to life.
Lady Oh clawed frantically at the pale head, trying desperately to piece it back onto the neck.
"No, no, no, no...!"
She was half-mad with grief. The grotesque sight, paired with her raw, hysterical reaction, finally shattered the stupor of the elders, dragging them back to reality.
Clang!
"Jegal Jeok-un!"
Jegal Tan drew his sword, pointing it directly at Jeok-un.
"Drop your weapon! Now!"
To the demand of disarming himself, Jeok-un did not offer a single word.
He merely stared down at his dead half-brother.
"You insolent bastard!"
Perhaps feeling insulted by the silence, Jegal Tan roared.
His voice shook the hall.
Only then did Jeok-un turn his gaze toward him.
Jegal Tan's eyes burned with a chaotic mix of confusion, hostility, and sheer shock.
The others were no different.
Most stared at Jeok-un with looks of utter disbelief or disgust, horrified that he had committed fratricide.
Yet, unlike them, Jeok-un's eyes held not a shred of emotion, nor the slightest hint of agitation.
I had to kill him now to eliminate any future trouble.
Before his regression, Jegal Wi-yeon had poisoned his own father and brother, using the clan's prestige to ascend to the position of Chief Military Advisor of the Orthodox Martial Alliance.
Then, through sheer incompetence and foolish blunders, he had rapidly tarnished the stellar reputation Jegal Mun had spent a lifetime building.
The Demonic Cult had easily exploited his absurd strategies, inflicting devastating losses on both the Alliance and Jeok-un's own Unorthodox Coalition.
And when Wi-yeon realized the battle was lost, he was the very first to defect to the Demonic Cult.
He had even offered the members of the Jegal Family who opposed him as sacrifices to the Cult.
But of course, his greatest sin was daring to harm my mother.
Had Jeok-un not taken matters into his own hands, the Jegal Family would never have executed Jegal Wi-yeon.
At worst, his punishment would have been life imprisonment in the family dungeon.
Jegal Wi-yeon was a descendant of the Geumhwang Merchant Group, one of the three major merchant groups in Jianghu.
The elders of the Jegal Family—leaders of the Orthodox faction bound by politics and prestige—would likely have hushed the matter up, dismissing it as a shameful family stain to be hidden away.
So, he had claimed it himself.
The life of this worthless insect, Jegal Wi-yeon.
"Jegal Jeok-un! This is my final warning! Drop your sword!"
Jegal Tan bellowed.
Jeok-un finally seemed to register his uncle's presence. With a quiet, "Ah," he shifted his gaze to Jegal Tan.
"Why should I?"
"W-what?"
"I have merely taken the head of my enemy. I fail to see why I am being treated like a criminal."
"You insolent wretch!"
Crackle!
A violent surge of energy erupted from Jegal Tan's body.
He was prepared to force compliance through blood if Jeok-un refused to disarm. But just as the tension reached its peak—
"Jegal Jeok-un."
"!"
The deep, resonant voice of the Patriarch, Jegal Mun, echoed through the hall.
Every eye turned toward him.
Jegal Mun's martial cultivation was at the absolute peak of the Transformation Realm.
If he willed it, Jegal Jeok-un would be subdued in the blink of an eye.
The pale-faced elders looked at the Patriarch with desperate hope.
Whoosh!
As if indeed furious, a terrifying aura began to radiate from Jegal Mun's body.
He spoke slowly, his eyes locked onto Jeok-un.
"Are you willing to stake your life on proving that your words are the truth?"
"Of course."
Jeok-un answered without a moment's hesitation, politely placing his sword on the ground before him. Jegal Mun then uttered words no one anticipated.
"Then prove it."
"P-Patriarch!"
Jegal Tan gasped in shock.
The Second Young Master had not just crossed the line; he was running rampant.
If they did not stop him here, another tragedy was bound to occur.
"Patriarch, we have no idea what the Second Young Master might do next!"
"Which is why I have stepped forward."
"..."
"If he has slaughtered his own brother out of mere paranoia..."
Jegal Mun's gaze turned as cold as the winter winds of the North Sea.
"I will personally make him pay for that sin with his life."
"!"
Jegal Mun spoke without a shred of hesitation.
He meant exactly what he said: if Jeok-un had committed this madness without concrete proof, he would suffer the exact same fate.
Jeok-un's mother, Lady Hang, let out a faint groan and fainted on the spot.
"...I shall obey your command."
Jegal Tan stepped back.
With his retreat, no one else dared to object.
Step. Step.
Jeok-un began to walk forward, his voice calm and steady.
"The assassin revealed that the client had one additional request."
"!"
"They demanded a fresh supply of poison for this month."
"P-poison?"
Shock rippled through the crowd.
Had they planned to resort to poison if the assassination failed?
But Jeok-un's next words took a strange turn.
"Yet, there is something strange about that. A supply for 'this month'? And yet, there is not a single trace of poison in my body."
"..."
"Which means... someone else has been slowly poisoned over a very long period."
Gasping breaths and hushed murmurs broke out across the hall.
Only now did they realize the true implication of his words.
The elders' eyes shook violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
For the past few years, there had been one person in the family whose health had been steadily, mysteriously deteriorating.
"Cough...!"
Right at that moment, someone let out a dry cough.
Naturally, every gaze snapped toward the sound.
Standing there, his face pale and wan, was the Eldest Young Master, Jegal Jun.
It was common knowledge within the clan that the Eldest Young Master, who suffered from an unidentified chronic illness, had taken a sharp turn for the worse recently.
Before my regression, Brother Jegal Jun was Jegal Wi-yeon's very first target.
It was only much later that Jeok-un had discovered the horrific method Jegal Wi-yeon and Lady Oh had used to usurp the Jegal Family.
And he had spent his entire life regretting it.
If only I had known sooner, I could have stopped them.
Doubt, disbelief, and shock.
As a tempest of emotions swirled within the Patriarch's Hall, Jeok-un came to a stop before Jegal Jun.
He looked up and spoke.
"Do you trust me, Brother?"
"...Jeok-un..."
What was he planning to do?
Given the madness that had just unfolded, no one would have blamed the Eldest Young Master if he chose to back away.
Yet, after holding Jeok-un's gaze for a moment, the Eldest Young Master—
Nodded.
"!"
"Eldest Young Master!"
He gave a firm nod.
His eyes held nothing but absolute trust in his younger brother.
Indeed, Jegal Jun was one of the very few people in the family who had always believed in Jeok-un.
While the crowd gasped in bewilderment,
"Then, excuse me."
Jeok-un instantly pressed his palm against Jegal Jun's dantian and channeled his Overlord's Qi.
"Wait, stop...!"
Jegal Tan tried to intervene, but he was too late.
Whoosh!
Forcibly separating them now would cause a violent backflow of qi, leading to qi deviation.
"Ugh!"
As the Overlord's Qi surged, Jegal Jun's face flushed crimson, and he let out a choked groan.
Was the Second Young Master trying to kill the Eldest Young Master as well?
Just as everyone's hearts leaped into their throats—
"H-heek!"
"What in the world...?!"
Gasps of horror erupted from the crowd.
A phenomenon bizarre enough to shock even the most seasoned veterans of the Jianghu was unfolding before their eyes.
As Jeok-un pulled his hand away from Jegal Jun's dantian—
Hummmmm!
A pitch-black, viscous energy resembling tar was drawn out, clinging to his palms.
Sssss!
Sizzle!
"Ugh!"
"Gah!"
A noxious poison and a foul, putrid stench instantly filled the Patriarch's Hall.
It was hard to believe, even while watching it happen.
But whether they believed it or not, reality remained unchanged, and the evidence was undeniable.
Just as Jeok-un had said, the Eldest Young Master, Jegal Jun, had been severely poisoned.
With the poison extracted, Jegal Jun's complexion returned to a healthier color than it had been in years.
"Thank... you."
"Think nothing of it."
Thud.
With his gratitude voiced, Jegal Jun lost consciousness and collapsed.
Jeok-un entrusted his brother to the First Madam, who was standing nearby, then slowly turned around and raised his hand.
Hum!
The poison he had just extracted from the Eldest Young Master's body hovered above his palm, coalescing into droplets of black liquid.
"Do you know what kind of poison even a martial artist who has transcended human limits cannot defend against?"
No one could answer.
"Time."
Step. Step.
Jeok-un began to walk again.
Even Jegal Tan did not block his path this time.
Every eye followed his footsteps.
"A deadly poison that, when administered in minuscule doses over a decade, guarantees death the moment it is fully realized."
"..."
"This is the Black Lotus Poison."
"!"
It was a poison none of them had ever heard of.
However, the elders allied with Lady Oh had no time to ponder the name.
If this was proven true, their lives would be worth less than flies.
They grit their teeth and shouted.
"Patriarch! While it is true the Eldest Young Master was poisoned, there is no proof that Lady Oh and the Third Young Master were the ones who did it!"
"Indeed, Patriarch! You must stop the Second Young Master's tyranny at once!"
Yet, no matter how much the elders screamed until their veins bulged, Jegal Mun remained silent.
He instinctively knew that it was now Jeok-un's turn to present the proof.
Step.
At that moment, Jeok-un finally stopped in front of one person.
"However, the Black Lotus Poison has one fatal flaw."
"Ugh, ah... My son. My son...!"
"Unless the user is trained in poison arts, they will inevitably be exposed to trace amounts of the toxin during the administration process."
Lady Oh, who was half-insane with grief, saw Jeok-un approaching and lunged at him like a wild beast.
"You! How dare you kill my son! I'll kill you!"
Swish!
Jeok-un lightly dodged her desperate strike, reached out, and subdued her instantly with a joint-locking technique.
"Ugh! Let go! Let me go! Husband, look at this wretch...!"
Blinded by shock and rage, she struggled wildly before finally looking up at her husband.
But she froze in terror.
Why... why is he looking at me like that?
Jegal Mun's eyes were as cold and sharp as ice crystals from the North Sea.
Rustle.
While she was paralyzed by shock, Jeok-un's free hand darted forward like a striking viper.
"Mmph! Hmph!"
As Jeok-un clamped his hand over her mouth, her entire body began to convulse.
It was not a struggle born of anger to escape his grasp.
It hurt. It hurt so much!
An excruciating, unbearable agony suddenly flooded her entire body.
"What is the matter? Is it not to your liking?"
There was only one reason.
When Jeok-un had covered her mouth, he had forced the entirety of the Black Lotus Poison he had extracted from Jegal Jun down her throat.
How could she possibly withstand the concentrated potency of a poison meant to kill slowly over a decade, now consumed all at once?
Bubble!
Lady Oh's skin flushed a violent crimson, and blisters began to bubble up across her body as if she were being burned alive.
At the same time, a pain several times worse than third-degree burns—the most agonizing pain a human could experience—ravaged her body.
While Lady Oh writhed and convulsed grotesquely on the floor, Jeok-un continued to speak in an incredibly serene tone.
"Gah! Ack! Urghhh!"
"Now, to finish what I was saying earlier... because the user of the Black Lotus Poison inevitably becomes poisoned themselves, they always keep the antidote on their person."
Having said his piece, Jeok-un took a step back.
At that moment, everyone's eyes shifted from him to Lady Oh.
But she was in no position to care about their stares.
The... the antidote!
She had to take the antidote.
No, she couldn't.
The moment she swallowed the antidote, she would be openly confessing to the entire world that she was the culprit.
Lady Oh felt as though her mind were about to tear itself apart.
"Gah! Urgh!"
In that instant, her eyes, bloodshot from ruptured capillaries, burned with a desperate madness.
No, I must live.
I have to survive first if I want to avenge my son.
Finally, she fumbled in her sleeve and pulled out a small glass vial.
"Ah...!"
"Look at her!"
Gasps of realization erupted around her, but Lady Oh ignored them all. She ripped the cap off and downed the contents.
*Gulp. Gulp.*
"Hah... Haaah... Urgh!"
The antidote quickly spread through her system.
Her crimson skin began to cool, and the blisters vanished as if they had never been there.
*Thud.*
The elders allied with Lady Oh all collapsed to the floor, their legs giving out.
They were ruined.
Utterly, hopelessly ruined.
Despair was written plainly across their faces.
"Well, it seems the culprit has kindly provided the proof herself."
"..."
Lady Oh turned her trembling head back.
Jeok-un was looking down at her, a cold smirk playing on his lips.
The voice of the King of Death echoed in her ears.
Though she had just vowed revenge, she could not help but shudder at the primal terror she was experiencing for the very first time.