The Poison That Could Not Work on Me
Dang Bo worked fast. He had announced that the young mistress succession ceremony would be held almost immediately, yet the main hall was already packed to the rafters.
Normally, as someone who was not a member of the Dang Family, I should not have been able to stand here. But why else had the young mistress selection tournament and the succession ceremony been created in the first place?
It had all started because of me. Of course, I was here as a guest under the Murim Alliance’s protection, but still.
When I first came to Danggata and the Dang Family, the looks aimed at me had been openly hostile. Now, somehow, they had softened quite a bit.
There were even young martial artists who approached me first, hoping to build some kind of connection.
I shook them off and barely managed to take my place beside Dang Hye.
“People from the Five Great Clans aren’t exactly simple, are they? Look at them all crowding in like this. Your future as the next young head of the Dang Family is already crystal clear.”
“Your future looks harder than mine, so maybe you should worry about that instead.”
“Why?”
“Because your recent behavior has been far more outrageous than anything a young head of one of the Five Great Clans has done.”
“Haah...”
That was true. These days, I was the hot topic of the martial world. Even in my past life, after I had reached the level of the greatest man under heaven, it had been nothing but trouble.
Back then, I could at least run away. This life would not be so simple, since I had to catch those bastards instead.
“The clan head is entering!”
Behind Dang Bo, the elders of the Dang Family began filing in one after another.
For a ceremony thrown together in such a hurry, it looked as though they had still managed to make it respectable.
Once Dang Bo sat in the seat of honor, the elders lined up on either side of him.
“I, Dang Bo, the twenty-first head of the Sichuan Dang Family, stand here today to proclaim the young mistress.”
Dang Bo began reciting the formalities that always came with a prestigious martial family, but none of it reached my ears.
I quickly swept my gaze around the hall. More people than yesterday had filled the room, so there was no way I could identify everyone who had come in. Still, the most glaring thing was the one face that should have been here but wasn’t.
Dang Pae and Dang Ho-yeop.
Neither of them was here.
Within the Dang Family, the clan head’s orders were absolute. And everyone inside the family had been summoned. Yet there was no sign of either of them.
“Dang Hye. Where are your brothers?”
“Don’t call them my brothers. And the clan head is speaking right now, so focus.”
At my question, Dang Hye scowled. Dang Bo finished speaking at length about the ceremony and then called her forward.
“Dang Hye, step forward.”
Her steps had weight to them. There was no trace left of the girl who had first entered Danggata and not been able to so much as talk back to Dang Ho-yeop.
“Do you swear to devote your life to guarding all that the ancestors built for the Dang Family?”
“Yes. I swear it.”
One of the elders came forward with a case trimmed in gold. Dang Bo carefully opened it.
“This family plaque proves that you are the young mistress of the Sichuan Dang Family.”
“Thank you.”
Dang Hye accepted the family plaque while still kneeling.
In an ordinary clan, a young head’s plaque might not mean much. But in the Dang Family, it meant something entirely different.
Because that plaque dramatically expanded the poisons Dang Hye could use and study. For a poison master, poison was power.
That was why the plaque symbolized tremendous authority within the Dang Family.
“With this, I, Dang Bo, head of the Dang Family, hereby proclaim that Dang Hye of the Dang Family has become the young mistress.”
The instant Dang Bo made his declaration and applause was about to burst through the hall...
Bang.
Bang!
Smoke began to rise from all over the main hall. Since everyone here was a martial artist, no one was particularly startled.
But as the smoke thickened until it filled the hall and blocked sight of everything ahead, Dang Bo’s voice rang out across the chamber.
“Who are you?”
At the same moment, the hall doors flew open. And the smoke began to disperse little by little.
Only one man stepped through the doorway.
“I haven’t even arrived yet, and you’re already declaring a young mistress... Tsk, tsk.”
He wore black martial robes and a black chicken mask.
Before I knew it, my body had already surged forward.
“So you finally showed yourself.”
“You shouldn’t move like that.”
The instant I took a step toward him, a tingling numbness spread through my entire body.
“Paralytic poison? How?”
I turned my eyes and looked around. I wasn’t the only one who had stopped moving. Starting with Dang Bo, the elders standing around him, and Dang Hye.
No. Everyone in the hall was frozen.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh. You can’t move your body, can you?”
The chicken mask walked toward me. Then he leaned his body in close.
“The moment I first saw you, I knew. You were immune to a thousand poisons. Why are you so surprised? That a man immune to a thousand poisons can get poisoned by something as trivial as paralytic toxin?”
Smack!
He slapped me hard across the face.
“Keep your eyes open nicely, before I gouge them out.”
He gave my shoulder a rough pat as he passed by. At that instant, my breathing grew ragged and my whole body started itching. He had poisoned me.
“...How, exactly?”
“Curious?”
He strolled lazily toward Dang Hye.
Then he kicked her aside as if she were nothing. Dang Hye’s body rolled horribly across the floor.
“You filthy bitch. Why couldn’t you stay dead and quiet like before, instead of crawling out and ruining all the plans?”
The chicken mask lifted his mask slightly and spat at Dang Hye.
“Ah. At this point, none of you can move anyway. Maybe I don’t need this mask after all.”
He untied the cord holding the mask in place and sat down in the clan head’s seat of honor. Then the face hidden beneath the mask was revealed.
“Dang Pae. You bastard.”
Dang Bo’s sharp voice rang out. Dang Pae snorted at the sight.
“So this is what it felt like, looking down from here. Father.”
Dang Pae burst into mad laughter. There was outright insanity in it.
“Hahhahahahaha. You were so unwilling to hand this worthless seat over to your son that you were going to pass it to that filthy bitch instead? I accepted every poison I brought you with my own hands, did I not? Heh-heh-heh-heh.”
His face seemed to glow with delight. He reached out and gripped Dang Bo’s face while laughing.
“Oh dear, Father. I wasn’t supposed to die here, but what can I do? That bastard ruined every single plan. Now, how should I kill you? Hmm... ah!”
Dang Pae climbed down from the seat again and started walking toward me.
“How about this? The clan head killed by the Bright Destroying Sword! And the Bright Destroying Sword killed by the clan head’s poison! What do you think? A picture the busybodies will love, don’t you?”
Dang Pae crouched in front of me and pulled the Bright Destroying Sword from my waist.
“What a fine sword. Yes, this is the kind of thing needed to take the life of a clan head.”
His eyes were bloodshot, red as embers. Just like Song Wol when he had been controlled by the Bright Destroying Sword. He seemed so excited that his shoulders began to shake.
“Should I kill you first, Baek Mugeuk, or our father first? I’ll let you choose. Since you gave me such a good sword, I’ll indulge you that much.”
“There’s an order to these things. Obviously, you start with the elder.”
“Look at you! So you want to die a little later, do you? That’s only natural for a human being. Though you’ll still be dead soon enough.”
“If I’m going to die, then let me learn one thing before I do.”
Dang Pae looked at me as though he were amused, like he was watching a bug struggle at the end of its life.
“What poison is this? How did you manage to subdue everyone in this hall, no, even me, who has reached immunity to a thousand poisons, along with the clan head and Dang Hye?”
“So that’s what you’re curious about. What should I do...”
Dang Pae’s mouth split into a wide grin. Then he smiled with narrowed eyes.
“Fine. I’m in a good mood, so I’ll tell you. The poison you drank was Shennong. A poison from the ancient age. What’s interesting about it is that it works in reverse against poison resistance.”
“The greater one’s poison resistance, the more that resistance becomes the opposite...”
“Exactly. Now everyone here needs to die. Starting with Father!”
Dang Pae brought the Bright Destroying Sword to Dang Bo’s neck. Even with the lightest touch, blood began to run down the blade.
“What did you say yesterday? ‘Shall I kill you?’ Father. Say it again.”
“Kill me.”
“There’s the clan head for you. What spirit.”
He raised his arm high and swung the Bright Destroying Sword.
Just before the blade reached Dang Bo’s neck, I forced my body upright and threw a punch.
Mighty Tiger Strike, First Form: Mountain-Shattering Fist.
A fist aura shaped like a tiger shot from my fist.
Crash!
Dang Pae’s body flew through the air and slammed into the wall.
I had used it in a hurry, so I hadn’t had time to gather my inner power or the leisure to execute the technique perfectly. But it was enough to knock Dang Pae back.
I picked up the Bright Destroying Sword lying on the floor. Dang Pae emerged from the wall, his face twisted with disbelief.
“Ghk... what? How the hell can you move?”
“Looks like Shennong doesn’t work on me.”
“That’s impossible.”
I ignored him and thrust my sword toward him. Dang Pae twisted and darted about to evade my blade, then began firing daggers at me.
“This can’t be happening!”
His daggers came faster and rougher by the second. I knocked them aside with quick motions and closed the distance.
Unless he caught me by surprise, a Dang Family poison user could never easily defeat a swordsman. And if the swordsman was at a higher level than him, then the moment he allowed distance, he had already lost.
I broke through the rain of daggers Dang Pae unleashed and brought my sword down toward his head. He twisted his body with desperate force.
Swish.
The sensation of steel slicing flesh stayed vividly in my hand.
Dang Pae’s left arm was cleanly severed by the Bright Destroying Sword.
Even so, as if he had realized something, Dang Pae began laughing like a madman.
“You bastard! You gave up immunity to a thousand poisons!”
“Quick on the uptake, aren’t you?”
Dang Pae was right. I had abandoned immunity to a thousand poisons.
I was about to die, and he was worried about poison immunity? I’d have given up immunity to ten thousand poisons if I had to.
Immunity to a thousand poisons was only a support state for me, nothing more.
“There was a way to do that? You’re a fucking lunatic!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“But here’s the thing. That means poison works on you now, doesn’t it?”
“And what would change because of that?”
“Plenty.”
Dang Pae’s black wind robe began trembling wildly. He was gathering all the inner power in his body.
Every last drop of it, and into the dagger in his right hand.
“You think your sword will reach me?”
“We’ll see!”
I threw myself at Dang Pae first. At the same time, his dagger flew toward me. I drove inner power into my sword.
Baek Family Seven Sword Arts. Steel.
A thick sword aura gathered along my blade and split the dagger in half. And that sword aura did not stop there. It went on to cleave Dang Pae’s body cleanly in two.
Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.
Even with only his upper body left, he did not stop laughing.
“What’s so funny about a man who’s about to die?”
“Because I won’t be dying alone. You’ll die with me. No, everyone in this hall will die.”
“You’re practically dead already. How are you planning to kill them all?”
“I scattered formless poison throughout the entire hall.”
“You’re ugly to the very end. But listen to me.”
I smiled faintly as I looked into Dang Pae’s eyes.
“I ate it up nicely.”
“What?”
“Thanks to you, I’ve reached immunity to ten thousand poisons.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“It means poison doesn’t work on me anymore.”
Dang Pae seemed about to say more, but I didn’t wait.
The Bright Destroying Sword dropped toward his neck and severed it cleanly.
His head rolled across the floor, his face still twisted in stunned, aggrieved disbelief.