Chapter 51: Poison Demon, Jegal-hwi-6
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 51: Poison Demon, Jegal-hwi-6
The gray smoke cleared at the main gate of the Black Sky Cult.
The entrance, once clamorous with the clashing of steel and the shouts of men grappling with one another, was now deathly silent. Even the insects and birds that usually chirped through the night had fallen still.
It was a landscape that looked as if time itself had been severed by the legendary blade of myth.
Every living thing had collapsed to the earth. The buildings, which had once radiated the imposing might of the Black Sky Cult, now appeared worn and rotted, as if they had weathered centuries of decay in a single moment.
Cultists and members of the Blue Dragon Corps lay sprawled across the ground together in a grim tableau.
"Gurgle..."
Some foamed at the mouth; others vomited black blood before drawing their final breath.
"Aaaaagh!"
Those who still clung to life writhed in searing agony. An indescribable pain surged through every sense they possessed.
"Kyaaa... ah!"
The Chief Steward personally ended the lives of the surviving cultists. They were poisoned by his own hand; there was no way to save them.
He moved alone through the pandemonium he had created, standing in solitary desolation.
"Ugh..."
The sound of the living reached his ears. No, it was the sound of the dying.
The Chief Steward shifted his feet toward the source. Upon seeing the person's face, he gritted his teeth.
"Ch-Chief Steward... Please, the Young Sect Leader..."
It was Maebwa, still clutching at the fraying threads of her life. Though half her face had already begun to rot, she wore an expression of relief despite the agony.
"I am sorry."
He repeated the words he had spoken while granting peace to the other cultists.
At his words, Maebwa slowly shook her head.
"There was... so much... I still had to teach... Yeonhwa..."
Thrust—
Without hesitation, the Chief Steward pierced Maebwa’s heart. She coughed up a spray of black blood and closed her eyes forever.
The presence of the living could no longer be felt.
The Chief Steward stood motionless in the field of corpses.
"I am... sorry."
The tears that had been welling up finally broke, tracing a single path down his chin.
He looked around.
This was the Black Sky Cult he had helped build. Yet, today, it felt utterly foreign. In his memories, the cult had never been this desolate.
"Ah..."
The people he had lived and bled with to protect this place were dead. He had killed those he considered family with his own hands.
That reality pierced his heart like a blade.
*
Jegal-hwi, a member of a collateral branch of the Jegal Family, was a being created by design.
Driven by the obsession to create a being that could effectively fuse the martial arts of various great families and sects, the Jegal Family had resorted to inhumane experiments. Their goal was to create a Poison Human who surpassed those of the Sichuan Tang Family.
That was the Jegal Family’s Poison Human Cultivation Plan.
However, it was impossible to catch up to the knowledge the Tang Family had accumulated over decades in a short amount of time. Consequently, many reckless experiments were conducted.
Countless toxins were pumped into his body. He was forced to sleep in jars teeming with poisonous insects. He had to consume the internal cores of snakes and spiders, and internal energy was forcibly injected into him all day long.
Through those atrocious experiments, Jegal-hwi became a Poison Human.
An incomplete one.
While his prowess was proven to surpass the Tang Family’s Poison Humans, he was unstable. Poison spread with every step he took, and the vegetation withered with every breath he exhaled. Furthermore, the poison qi began to eat away at him from the inside, soon threatening his life. Recognizing the danger he posed, the Jegal Family cast him out.
Abandoned by his family, Jegal-hwi suffered more from the pain of betrayal than from the poison ravaging his body.
As he waited for the end in a secluded place, someone appeared before him.
— What are you doing here?
— G-get away. You’ll be poisoned.
— This level of poison is nothing to me.
The overbearing woman took Jegal-hwi’s hand and pulled him up. In that instant, a certain energy swept through his body.
— Your balance is ruined. Tsk.
— W-what are you...
He tried to offer a faint resistance, but the hand holding his wouldn't budge an inch. Soon, vitality returned to his body, and the sensation that he was about to explode subsided.
— I’ve stabilized you for now so you won't die. You’ll probably... live for about another month.
— Only a month?
— Yes, a month. But if you learn how to control the power within you during that time, you won't die.
— Please, teach me how.
— Then follow me. Since I’m saving your life, that life belongs to me now.
— May I ask your name, Great One?
— What "Great One"? Just call me the Heavenly Demon.
He followed the Heavenly Demon blindly for several years. As promised, she not only taught him how to control his poison qi but also passed down her martial arts to him.
Moreover, people gradually gathered around her, forming the group known as the Black Sky Cult. The members of the cult cherished one another and treated each other like family.
Jegal-hwi wondered if it was the shared bond of comrades who had all met at the edge of their lives. Having eventually risen to the position of Chief Steward, Jegal-hwi made a vow: he would make their sanctuary a better place.
*
The Blue Dragon Corps, led by Lee Hang, arrived at the Heavenly Demon Palace.
"It seems the Thunder Sword was right; the Heavenly Demon is definitely absent."
Indeed, had the Heavenly Demon been present, they would have met an early grave before even ascending the mountain. He didn't know where she had obtained the information, but the Thunder Sword had been certain of the Heavenly Demon’s absence.
"Good. Now, find the man named Kang In-ho as planned."
At Lee Hang’s command, the members scattered to search the Heavenly Demon Palace. They smashed furniture and tore up floorboards, looking for any hidden passages. Since the target was said to have no internal energy at all, he wouldn't be detected by energy sensing; this crude method of searching was actually the fastest way.
"No suspicious traces found."
"Same here."
The search continued for some time, and the empty-handed members gathered back in front of Lee Hang.
"We’ve only just searched the Heavenly Demon Palace. Move to the next—"
Just as Lee Hang was about to order them to move to another palace, he spun around, feeling a murderous intent grip the back of his neck.
Radiating an ominous purple aura, the Chief Steward trudged toward them.
"How... he should have been pinned down. Don't tell me... he used poison arts..."
The calculation that he wouldn't use poison arts where his own people were present had been utterly shattered. The Chief Steward stood before them.
Growling in a raspy voice, the soulless eyes of the Poison Demon, Jegal-hwi, fixed upon the intruders.
"Don't break my home any further."
In that growl, there was a trace of pitiful grief.