Sichuan Tang Clan (6)
Sichuan Tang Clan (6)
No one truly knew the layout of the Sichuan Tang Clan's main estate.
From the outside, it looked like an ordinary nobleman's mansion. But from the very beginning when the Tang family estate was first designed, the underground had been excavated deep and wide for the purpose of safely storing and secretly researching all manner of poisons. The scale of construction at the time was so massive it sparked rumors they were building a king's tomb; now, with the mansion sitting above ground like a burial mound, hardly anyone properly understood its true scale and structure.
That was why we couldn't just dig recklessly and charge in. What if we tunneled thoughtlessly into the Tang Clan's underground and accidentally breached a chemical storehouse, causing poison to leak out? What if the guards guarding the underground spotted us and rained poison down the moment we opened the tunnel? What if the tunnel position was off and we smashed through barrels storing poison?
It would be no different from blindfolding yourself and going around poking beehives. If we were going to turn Chengdu into hell with such reckless acts, then strapping on a keg of gunpowder and blowing ourselves up in the Tang Clan's underground would clearly be the more efficient option.
But now, there was no reason to even consider such a reckless operation. Because Tang Yeong-hwan had agreed to help us. The plan I devised went like this.
Tang Yeong-hwan, who had said he would not return, would belatedly visit the estate to see Tang Yeong-ju's face.
Tang Yeong-ju, considering this a gesture of reconciliation, would welcome Tang Yeong-hwan warmly and show him all around the estate to display his research achievements. Tang Yeong-hwan, having memorized the internal layout, would then draw an interior map and deliver it to us waiting outside, and we would dig a tunnel directly toward the underground chamber where the Poison Human slumbered.
"For the sake of Tang Ui-gyeong and that girl, I will succeed without fail."
With this declaration of extraordinary resolve, Tang Yeong-hwan moved his steps toward the Tang Clan's estate.
******
And so more time passed.
"There's been no progress."
The advanced stages of Taijiquan had been stagnating for some time. Apparently, this wasn't so much because I couldn't concentrate, but rather a phenomenon everyone experienced before properly grasping the knack. Just as you need steady effort to break through a specific time barrier when running, they said that if you kept at qi control steadily, you would suddenly grasp the trick, break through the wall, and become able to manipulate qi more swiftly.
Hong Ye wore a troubled expression at my grumbling and said,
"Usually many people achieve understanding by teaching others and interpreting, or in extreme cases, by injecting qi to push them to the brink of life and death... but."
While I was receiving the secret teachings of the Taiji Sect, the idea of me teaching anyone else was absurd, and Hong Ye couldn't exactly inject qi and tell me to go experience death, so literally, there was no answer other than steady practice.
"You've also spent a lot of time lately traveling here and there, so your progress may naturally be slow. But you are such an astute person, sir; your skill will surely improve in no time."
"I know that steadiness is the answer, yet the temptation of shortcuts always flickers before me. I cannot help it. This must be why people fall to heart demons and become absorbed in the demonic path."
"Should you become that way, sir, I will simply rap you on the head and set you back to normal, so do not worry."
Hong Ye said this and mimed rapping the air with her fist. It was a posture like giving a child a knuckle sandwich, so I laughed even in the middle of training. Hong Ye awkwardly scratched her head and laughed too, then we resumed our training.
It was just when Tang Yeong-hwan first revealed himself at the Tang Clan.
*******
"Brother! You've finally come!"
Those who witnessed the scene at the time all clicked their tongues, saying it was a truly wondrous thing. Because the cold-hearted and terrifying head of the Tang Clan, the moment a shabby old man appeared at the main gate, came running out in his stocking feet wearing a broad smile. Those who knew the clan head's usual temperament shook their heads in disbelief.
Especially when they found out the visitor was Tang Yeong-hwan, the very brother who had once competed over the family, it was even more so. No matter how much the Tang Clan flaunted familial harmony, the competition to become clan head was fiercer than anything. The busybodies of Sichuan remembered well that Tang Yeong-hwan and Tang Yeong-ju had waged a truly sparks-flying rivalry until the very, very end.
"Truly a wondrous thing. That Tang Yeong-hwan, who gave up the family of his own accord and fled, would return to the Tang Clan like this."
"Doesn't this mean it's true the Tang Clan is preparing something enormous? I've always been curious about the 'results' Tang Yeong-ju has been researching. What on earth could it be, that Tang Yeong-hwan gave up the competition and ran, and that for over ten years they haven't announced it to the outside world and kept their mouths firmly shut?"
"This time, something truly unimaginable might emerge."
While people gossiped, Tang Yeong-hwan and Tang Yeong-ju were walking the corridors of the estate. Tang Yeong-hwan looked at the corridors he faced for the first time in a long while, his eyes steeped in emotion. This was once the place he had lived. The finish on the walls, the aged corridors—everything was just as it was back then, unchanged.
"Brother. Welcome back."
And beside him was Tang Yeong-ju, a pleased expression and a smile on his face. Tang Yeong-hwan even found himself wondering if perhaps he had been misunderstanding his younger brother. Maybe Tang Ui-gyeong's daughter had actually been freed long ago, and maybe Yeong-ju had long since abandoned research like the Poison Human.
Perhaps the reason he had called him this time was also to reflect on the past and move toward reconciliation.
"As it happens, the Poison Human's completion is right before our eyes. Please, stay at the estate until then. Once you see the Poison Human, you too will understand, Brother. That all the effort and sacrifice up to now has never been in vain."
But seeing him casually bring up talk of the Poison Human, his eyes glinting, it was clear that Yeong-hwan still could not understand Yeong-ju. Yeong-ju, too, did not understand Yeong-hwan in the slightest. Yeong-hwan barely managed to hide his twisting expression and nodded his head.
"You are still fixated on the Poison Human?"
Tang Yeong-ju wore a hurt expression at Yeong-hwan's question and said,
"'Still,' you say. I have been striving all this time to raise high the name of the Tang Clan. Brother. Once the Poison Human reveals itself, everyone from the Murim Alliance to the martial artists of the orthodox sects will be terrified of the Tang Clan and prostrate themselves flat. The day the Tang Clan rises above even the Nine Sects One Gang is not far off."
Tang Yeong-hwan thought Tang Yeong-ju's dream was absurd and groundless. The Central Plains were vast. Even if the Sichuan Tang Clan was fearsome, and even if the Poison Human was supposedly great, was it great enough to shatter the walls of the world under heaven and reign above them? Tang Yeong-hwan could not understand Yeong-ju's words.
"Just how great is this Poison Human, for you to say such things? At best, is it not simply a single human who freely wields poison?"
"Brother. 'For now,' it is a single one."
Tang Yeong-hwan's face hardened at Yeong-ju's words. The phrase 'for now' implied there was a next. Seeing Yeong-hwan's rigid expression, Tang Yeong-ju smiled and continued.
"It took ten years to make a single Poison Human, but now, if we can only perfect it, mass-producing Poison Humans using that method will be no task at all. With 100—no, 1,000—Poison Humans, who would dare look down on the Tang Clan? Who would dare send a challenge to the Tang Clan's name?"
"...Who looks down on us now? From Sichuan all the way to Zhejiang, no one looks down on the Tang Clan. So just why on earth are you dreaming such a horrific dream?"
Tang Yeong-ju burst into a hearty laugh at Yeong-hwan's words. His reaction seemed utterly delighted. No matter how much Yeong-hwan pressed him, it appeared to feel like the typical sulking or complaints of those who did not yet know the truth. Tang Yeong-ju walked forward and said,
"You will understand once you see, Brother."
Tang Yeong-hwan broke out in a cold sweat as he saw the entrance to the underground chamber draw nearer. It was that very chamber which always appeared before his eyes whenever he had nightmares. The girl would be tied up, crying out to be saved, but Yeong-hwan, mired in a swamp, could never reach that child.
Now, Tang Yeong-hwan had returned to the place he fled in the past and was facing the karma of his family.
Tang Yeong-ju opened the lock and said,
"After all this time, don't you miss it? Didn't you research with me here, Brother? The San Gong Poison you researched was truly a superb thing."
Tang Yeong-hwan could not even remember well the things he had researched. San Gong Poison—yes, he had certainly researched such things when he was young. Tang Yeong-ju handed him an object that looked like a mask and said,
"What is this?"
"You must wear this before entering. The Poison Human has reached the realm of Ten Thousand Poison Immunity but cannot control the poison aura emanating from its own body, so poison is always flowing inside the underground chamber."
Tang Yeong-hwan twisted his face. The fact that the Poison Human was nearly at the completion stage made him feel even more wretched. On one hand, while nodding his head, he also did not forget to draw a blueprint in his mind and gauge the location of the underground chamber to sketch out.
Tang Yeong-ju slowly descended the stairs of the underground chamber. The moment they entered, the door shut close behind them, and after passing through a narrow, precarious path like a slum alley, they came face to face with a heavy iron door like a vault.
Tang Yeong-ju took a deep breath. Just looking at it seemed to make his heart surge. His eyes sparkled with hope for the future, and his fingers wriggled like a child preparing a presentation. Tang Yeong-hwan felt wretched that Yeong-ju's obsession had manifested in such a wrong direction.
It was all the more so because the passion of his youth remained intact.
"Brother. Behold."
The door opened. A noisy sound rang out as iron and stone scraped against each other. Tang Yeong-hwan could not bear to look properly at the figure beyond the door. A violet poison aura covered every direction, and within it, a woman hung suspended in the air, shackled in manacles.
She was staring into empty space with a slender, pale face that looked as if she had just become an adult, and her eyes were thick with tear stains. Her appearance was beautiful, but the poison aura flowing from her body made her impression horrifying. Tang Yeong-ju pointed his finger at her and said,
"This is the Poison Human."