Chapter 336
Chapter 336
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 336
Chapter Title: Extreme Poison
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Dang Mujin woke up in Mok Wan-ah's quarters.
It wasn't his first time waking up there, so he didn't feel any particular sense of discomfort. The only difference from usual was that Mok Wan-ah wasn't there.
But with her faint scent and the smell of sweat still subtly filling the room in her place, he didn't feel all that empty.
Dang Mujin lay there with half-open eyes, lost in thought.
'How did I end up falling asleep here?'
Nothing specific came to mind.
Still, figuring nothing special had happened, Dang Mujin stepped out of Mok Wan-ah's quarters. Having slept in for the first time in ages, the sun had already risen a full handspan above the eastern mountaintop.
And as soon as he stepped outside, Dang Mujin spotted Hong Geolgae.
Hong Geolgae was sitting cross-legged as if meditating, but the moment he saw Dang Mujin, he rose with a meaningful smile.
Brushing the dirt off his buttocks, Hong Geolgae said,
"Heh, our esteemed Dang Clan Leader. Looks like you had a very peaceful sleep, eh?"
"···?"
Dang Mujin felt a thick sense of unease.
Men who were close didn't usually exchange pleasantries about having slept well the night before.
With suspicion heavy in his voice, Dang Mujin asked,
"Of course I slept well. Why would I have any reason to toss and turn?"
"Well, sure. How comfortable must the bed have been for you to sleep a full two days straight!"
"Two days?"
Dang Mujin dismissed it as Hong Geolgae spouting nonsense, letting it go in one ear and out the other.
But then two more people appeared. Jang Il-nam and Dan Seol-young, both with faces full of worry.
No, upon closer look, it wasn't just the two of them. Off in the distance, he could see people glancing his way. Something was off.
Hong Geolgae said to Jang Il-nam,
" Elder Jang, did you hear? This Dang Mujin guy doesn't even realize he'd been out cold for two days."
Dang Mujin cut off Hong Geolgae.
"Hold on. You said I passed out?"
Dang Mujin tried recalling what had happened before he fell asleep.
But if Hong Geolgae wasn't lying, there was no memory left of the process up to falling asleep.
Jang Il-nam spoke to Dang Mujin in a worried voice.
"You bravely took on that poison and passed out right then and there. Everyone in the Dang Clan Manor knows the story now. They're all sincerely hoping for your swift recovery."
Passed out from poison? No way—that thought crossed his mind, but then a short, vivid memory surfaced.
The memory of bringing the poison sac to his nose despite Mok Wan-ah trying to stop him.
There was nothing after that. He must have really passed out.
What was even more humiliating was that everyone in the Dang Clan Manor knew about it.
As Dang Mujin's face flushed red with shame, Hong Geolgae burst into loud laughter. He seemed thrilled to have a chance to tease him after so long.
Judging by Hong Geolgae's reaction, Dang Mujin suspected he was the one who'd spread the rumor around the manor.
Dan Seol-young approached Dang Mujin and asked,
"How's your condition?"
There was no dizziness or pain. Sensation in his limbs was normal, and he felt no particular discomfort. Dang Mujin nodded.
"Seems fine."
Only then did Dan Seol-young let out a sigh of relief.
"Whew···. Got it. No weird accidents today, okay? See you at dinner later. Got it?"
"Got it."
As Dang Mujin approached and gave Dan Seol-young a light hug, she smiled faintly and went off to her tasks.
Now seemingly at ease, Jang Il-nam headed to the infirmary with a brighter expression. No doubt to look after the children.
Dang Mujin pondered deeply. Something still felt off.
'If it was enough to make me pass out, it must have been an insane extreme poison. How did the toxicity clear up in just two days?'
There were two main ways to expel poison from the body: neutralization or discharge.
While unconscious, his body could only neutralize so much on its own, so it must have been discharged somehow.
'Through breathing?'
It felt a bit odd that such an extreme poison had been almost entirely expelled through breathing in just two days, but Dang Mujin didn't dwell on it suspiciously. No other method came to mind for discharging it while passed out. Since he'd inhaled the poison through breathing, it wasn't all that strange for it to leave the same way.
'Powerful poison, but not particularly sticky in nature.'
With that conclusion, Dang Mujin thought he should examine the spider's poison sac again and headed to the storage room attached to Mok Wan-ah's annex.
Hong Geolgae still looked eager to keep teasing him, but Dang Mujin ignored him and entered the storage room.
As Dang Mujin stepped into the dim storage room, Mok Wan-ah greeted him.
"You're awake?"
"Just got up."
"How's your condition?"
"Fine. Almost no toxicity left. Seems like a poison that's easy to expel through breathing."
"Oh, that···."
Mok Wan-ah started to say something but stopped.
"Why? Something happen?"
"No. Nothing."
Mok Wan-ah glanced at Dang Mujin and grinned broadly. Her expression was cute, like a small animal.
Dang Mujin looked around the storage room again.
The other poisons there were all intriguing, but what drew his interest most was still the spider's poison sac.
Given that the massive spider had markings resembling a human face, it was surely a spirit beast—the Human-Faced Spider.
As Dang Mujin strode toward the Human-Faced Spider's poison sac, Mok Wan-ah warned him.
"Sniffing it a bit should be fine, but anything more is dangerous."
It wasn't a particularly emphatic warning. If anything, her voice carried a strange sense of anticipation.
Dang Mujin replied calmly.
"I'll be careful this time, so no need to worry."
"Mm···."
Dang Mujin proceeded cautiously.
He untied the string sealing the sac's opening and, instead of bringing it straight to his nose like last time, lightly fanned it with his hand to spread the poison gas around before inhaling just a little.
Contrary to his expectations, the poison's nature was incredibly sticky. It stung not just his nose but his lungs right away, the toxicity so thick.
'No wonder I lost consciousness after inhaling this directly.'
Even the smell alone was this intense—what about the venom itself?
Dang Mujin was so accustomed to poisons that he might survive somehow. But any ordinary master would have their breath cut short in an instant.
It was an extreme poison so dangerous that most people would recoil in horror.
But that very danger made Dang Mujin's heart race.
To him, poison held the same meaning as a sword did to any other warrior.
Just as no swordsman would flee in fear from the sharpest blade in the world, Dang Mujin had no intention of backing away from such an extreme poison.
'I want to wield this poison somehow.'
Yet he had no ready way to handle it.
The most immediate use would be carrying the sac around and splashing it on an enemy.
But that was the most inefficient, low-level way to use poison.
Mok Wan-ah asked Dang Mujin,
"What are you thinking?"
"Wondering if there's a way to handle this poison. It's clearly an incredible find, but the toxicity is so overwhelming, I don't even have confidence I can endure it."
As he said that, a thought flashed through Dang Mujin's mind.
In the past, the Poison Demon had experimented with countless poisons on children.
And the sole child to survive taking in all those various poisons to the end was Mok Wan-ah.
Of all those children, was Mok Wan-ah the only survivor purely due to luck or constitution?
Was that even possible with just luck or constitution?
Perhaps Mok Wan-ah knew a way to endure strong poisons?
But one thing nagged at him. It didn't seem like she cherished those memories fondly.
So Dang Mujin asked carefully,
"Wan-ah. Mind if I ask something?"
"Yeah? What're you curious about?"
"Were you resistant to poison from childhood?"
Mok Wan-ah was quick on the uptake and immediately grasped what he was getting at.
"No. The first time I encountered poison, it was just as painful and agonizing as for the other kids."
"Then how did you become able to endure it like you do now?"
Mok Wan-ah organized her thoughts for a moment before answering.
"I think it was because I was more scared than the other kids."
"What do you mean?"
"The Poison Demon was a poison researcher. He didn't care if kids died, but he wasn't using poison to kill them outright. The kids themselves didn't realize it, but he never used poison too strong for them to survive from the start. Even kids who couldn't handle it well survived at least once or twice before dying."
Dang Mujin listened attentively without urging her on, and Mok Wan-ah continued slowly.
"Same for me. The poisons he used got stronger bit by bit, and the pain got worse. That unfamiliar terror made me think of one thing."
"What?"
"That if I got used to the pain, at least the next dose wouldn't feel so alien. Remember he once said he taught the kids a simple breathing technique? "
Dang Mujin nodded. He recalled hearing that before escaping the Demonic Cult.
"The other kids tried using that breathing technique to drive out the poison and escape the pain. The Poison Demon told them to circulate it to expel the toxicity too. But I did it differently. Instead of using the breathing technique to expel the poison, I used it to hold onto the toxicity as long as possible."
"···An unusual idea. Why?"
"They say people get numb to things eventually, right? If I got used to the immediate pain, the next one would be easier to bear. And it actually worked. I'm the only one who survived, after all."
Dang Mujin checked Mok Wan-ah's expression. He worried he might have made her dredge up painful memories.
Yet even recounting those tormented days, she didn't look particularly distressed.
"Then I realized something odd. What happens if you hold the toxicity tight and circulate the breathing technique using that poison gas?"
"···No idea."
He'd never tried anything like that.
Even though his internal energy contained toxicity, poison was poison, and qi was qi.
When circulating his breathing technique, Dang Mujin always purged the toxicity from his qi and moved only pure energy.
Mok Wan-ah explained.
"The poison condenses and gets denser. Like how saltwater gets saltier as the water evaporates—the toxicity intensifies. Sometimes, the remaining toxicity after condensation exceeds what you first took in. Circulating the technique in that state feels like your meridians are tearing apart. More painful than when you first absorbed it."
"···."
Just thinking about it sounded dangerous.
For an ordinary martial artist, Qi Circulation and Breathing was like cleaning the acupoints with soft, fine cotton cloth.
Carefully washing away accumulated waste with internal energy to smooth qi flow, gradually widening the meridians to handle more energy.
The process had to be as stable and cautious as possible.
That's why martial artists circulated their techniques while sitting cross-legged in the safest posture, in places where no one could disturb them. Some even assigned protectors for it.
In contrast, Mok Wan-ah's method deliberately induced pain and acclimated to it.
It wasn't like other martial artists prioritizing stability—it was like scouring and tearing meridians with rough gravel instead of cotton, leaving wounds.
As far as Dang Mujin knew, no martial artist cultivated that way. Not even his master, the Strange Physician, had ever mentioned it.
He suspected it helped acclimate to poison but wouldn't increase internal energy volume.
Mok Wan-ah continued.
"You endure the pain and get used to it. Thinking the next poison won't hurt quite as much. In reality, the other kids collapsed from strong poisons and never woke up, but I endured to the end. Since I'm still alive, my method clearly worked."
Mok Wan-ah's Qi Circulation and Breathing was utterly different from others', yet it shared something with typical martial training.
Warriors constantly pushed their limits, expanding them bit by bit.
Gradually wielding faster swords, infusing more meaning into each technique.
She had pushed and expanded her limits the same way.
'If I train like Wan-ah to expand my limits, could I endure the Human-Faced Spider's poison too?'
Plenty possible.
But one concern lingered. No martial artist died swinging a sword faster, but training her way could genuinely kill you.
Still, Dang Mujin couldn't easily suppress his greed.
That's what martial artists were—people who knew the risks but had to take one more step to feel satisfied.
Dang Mujin asked Mok Wan-ah,
"Wan-ah. When you warned me about that poison sac, it was because you've encountered its poison too, right?"
"Yeah. I've sniffed it myself."
"How was it?"
"···Didn't pass out."
"Could I do the same?"
Mok Wan-ah pondered briefly, then nodded.
"You should. You're more accustomed to poison than me, so you'll achieve it faster. But don't start with strong poison. The key is starting weak and slowly raising your limits."
"Right."
Dang Mujin had two goals.
First: Circulate the breathing technique with poison gas to acclimate to poison.
Second: Gradually condense the poison, testing how far it could be compressed.
For starters, he'd refine and condense weak poison to gauge effects.
The first poison Dang Mujin chose was from apricot seeds—peach pits, essentially.
Varying by variety, but not life-threatening. Even non-martial artists got off with mere stomach upset; it had no effect on warriors.
Perfect for testing condensation limits precisely because it was so weak.
Conveniently, Dang Mujin had a suitable test subject.
In a cool voice, he asked Mok Wan-ah,
"Wan-ah."
"Yeah?"
"The thing about me sniffing the Human-Faced Spider's poison and passing out. Who'd you tell?"
"I told your father, Seol-young, and Hong Geolgae—three people."
No way his father or Dan Seol-young spread it around, so Hong Geolgae was surely the rumor-monger.
Dang Mujin cast mercy aside.
*
Waiting until deep into the night when everyone was asleep, Dang Mujin sat cross-legged before Hong Geolgae's room and began Qi Circulation and Breathing.
Poison-laced internal energy flowed through his meridians, bringing faint pain.
Merely poison from apricot seeds. Yet as circulation continued, the pain intensified. Eventually, it felt like thin blades slicing through his meridians.
But Dang Mujin welcomed the pain gladly.
Soon, faint toxic qi rose around his body, and a slender breeze from somewhere drew it into Hong Geolgae's room.
Thus, for three days, Dang Mujin endured the pain in front of Hong Geolgae's door, devoting himself to circulation.
Dang Mujin confirmed new possibilities for poison arts, while Hong Geolgae suffered diarrhea for a full ten days.