Into the Poison Forest Valley
At the entrance to the Tang Clan’s forbidden Poison Forest Valley, Tang Yuhyeon wore a face of pure dread.
“I’m not going there to die, little brother.”
“……This is what greets me the moment you come back…….”
“Poison Forest Valley isn’t half bad as a punishment. I get to see Grandfather, too. Win-win.”
“Even so…….”
Tang Cheonwi ruffled his younger brother’s hair.
“Just keep training hard.”
“Yes…….”
Then, so only Yuhyeon could hear, he murmured, “I’ve already decided on the sword you’ll use. The Azure Light Sword—you can give it to whoever you want.”
“A divine weapon?”
“Give it to Ildo if you can. Make him yours. Understand?”
“I’ll do as you say, Hyung-nim.”
Hearing his brother’s answer, Cheonwi turned his head.
[Keep a close watch on the Lord of Yuhongak. Someone’s bound to try contacting her.]
At Tang Cheonwi’s sound transmission, Tang Ildo answered.
[So that’s why you left her alive?]
[If she’d been useless, I’d have killed her.]
[As expected, you’re a terrifying man.]
Tang Ildo’s eyes widened.
Before he knew it, he had become one of Tang Cheonwi’s followers.
The more he experienced the man, the more terrifying he became.
He looked simple and brute-force on the surface, yet every move was part of a board he had already finished arranging inside his head.
[Be careful. The ones who’ll try to reach the Lord of Yuhongak will be quite strong.]
What looked easy was always the hardest.
The Young Master possessed a talent for making every incident look simple.
[Just who is the mastermind behind all this?]
[People who have existed since ancient times.]
[Can’t you tell me more?]
[That’s far enough. Knowing more won’t do you any good.]
[Then just one more thing.]
[What?]
[Where does information like this even come from? You don’t have a force of your own, Young Master.]
[Secret.]
Tang Cheonwi gave a mischievous smile.
Tang Ildo was dying of curiosity.
But in the end, he was told nothing.
“Everyone, head back now.”
As he turned, Tang Yuhyeon called out.
“Hyung-nim, at least take Seoreum with you.”
The Yin Spirit Ice Fox peeked its head out from his arms.
He had planned to call for it after everyone was asleep.
“It’s better than being alone.”
“Fine.”
He accepted the Yin Spirit Ice Fox without refusing.
“I’m going.”
“Please take care of yourself.”
Tang Cheonwi stepped into the Poison Forest Valley.
The moment he took a single step, his form vanished without a trace—swallowed by the formation laid within.
After witnessing that, Tang Ildo spoke.
“We should head back as well.”
“Will he be all right?”
“He’ll come out even stronger.”
“I need to work harder too, so I don’t hold Hyung-nim back.”
“Second Young Master is already plenty strong.”
“Compared to Hyung-nim, I’m still woefully lacking.”
A hardworking genius.
That was Tang Yuhyeon.
And that genius had just been spurred on.
Looks like we’re going to get one more monster.
Even among the Six Dragons and Four Flowers, Tang Yuhyeon’s skill was nothing to scoff at.
For his age, his martial arts were already exceptional.
Yet he was not satisfied.
He recognized his own shortcomings and sought to grow past them.
If I slack off, I might lose my position before I know it.
Tang Ildo felt a sense of crisis as well.
If the master he intended to serve grew even stronger than he was now…… would there still be a reason for him to exist?
He desperately needed to train.
Half a day after Tang Cheonwi entered the Poison Forest Valley, the Tang Clan was abuzz over the expulsion of the Lord of Yuhongak.
“I heard the Lord of Yuhongak tried to kill the Young Master and Second Young Master again?”
“This time the Great Lord of Yuhongak moved in person, they say.”
“Apparently the Young Master dragged the Great Lord straight back and flung him in front of the Lord of Yuhongak…… If I’d been there, I’d have pissed myself.”
The two speakers were husband and wife.
The husband had returned battered and broken at the hands of his own nephew.
Who could keep their sanity after that?
“But I heard the Lord of Yuhongak practiced demonic arts—is that true?”
“Everyone’s trying to hush it up, but the rumor seems right.”
“Why, though? Her status in the Tang Clan is among the very highest.”
“Tsk tsk. The more power a person has, the more power they crave.”
“She has a son, doesn’t she? I’m guessing that’s why.”
The patrolling Tang martial artists nodded.
Everyone wanted their own son to become the clan’s successor.
And for that, the strongest heirs had to be removed.
Tang Cheonwi, the legitimate eldest son of the Tang Clan.
And Tang Yuhyeon, the second son—a genius who appeared only once in a thousand years.
Those two were the greatest obstacles.
“Human greed truly knows no bounds.”
“Who would want to end up a side-branch member? Everyone here was once of the direct line, after all.”
Even if one’s parents were direct descendants, failing to become the heir meant dropping into a side branch.
With time, the bloodline only grew more distant.
To keep from being forgotten, reaching the peak of power was the surest path.
“Still, she went too far. If she’d been content with the power she already had, her internal energy wouldn’t have been sealed and she’d still be walking around with her shoulders squared. Tsk tsk.”
“Enough of that. Let’s talk about something more interesting. What do you all make of the Young Master’s martial arts?”
Their eyes lit up.
A new topic—and one that touched on the strength of the man who had clashed with the Lord of Yuhongak twice.
“This time there was no Black Scale Guard, they say. He faced the Poisonous Flower Rain alone.”
“He crushed it with poison palms, apparently.”
“Maybe it isn’t empty talk anymore.”
Even so, doubt lingered.
There was nothing but rampant rumor.
How many Tang martial artists had actually witnessed the Young Master’s martial prowess?
Only a tiny handful.
“Looking at how he beat even the Lord of Yuhongak, he’s no ordinary man.”
“He might even be stronger than the Second Young Master.”
“Come on! Not stronger than the Second Young Master. He’s the greatest genius in Tang history.”
“In just two more years he’ll reach Transcendence.”
They still placed Tang Yuhyeon above him.
There was abundant information on the Second Young Master.
By contrast, they knew precious little about Tang Cheonwi.
Because of his status as Young Master, even strong martial artists had often been unable to resist and simply taken the loss.
The status of the Tang Clan’s legitimate heir was absolute.
Defying it was something that simply did not happen within the clan.
“Still, the Young Master is impressive in his own right. He couldn’t have pressured the Lord of Yuhongak with status alone.”
“That’s true enough.”
Slowly, the atmosphere was shifting toward recognition of Tang Cheonwi.
At the same time, a thread of unease began to spread.
A tyrant who now possessed real martial power as well.
Some clansmen worried about what would happen if he ran wild the way he used to.
Around the same time, deep within the innermost grounds of the Jegal Clan, a mysterious power was rising.
Shiiing!
A sword sliced through the air.
Along its path, a subtle haze of energy danced.
Behind the old man performing the sword dance, three people watched from a respectful distance—Jegal Gyeong, who had just returned from his travels, along with Jegal Gwang and Jegal Rin.
“Grandfather’s sword has grown even more elusive in the short time we’ve been gone.”
At Jegal Gwang’s murmur, Jegal Gyeong nodded.
“And what happens if the changes become too subtle?”
“You get left behind. You can no longer even perceive the shifts.”
“Can you keep up with that sword?”
“Not yet.”
“This uncle could not, but you will be able to.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll surpass even the swords of the Tang Clan.”
Jegal Gwang’s eyes deepened.
The change in his closest friend.
It was as if he had become a completely different person—he had grown so much stronger.
“That’s right. At the very least, we must not fall behind the Tang Clan in the sword.”
The pinnacle of the Tang Clan was poison.
These days their swords and hidden weapons were famous, yet the clan’s true essence lay in poison arts.
If they could not even overcome the Tang Clan’s swords, how could they ever hope to overcome their poison?
“I will keep that firmly in mind.”
The moment he answered, the old man’s sword dance came to an end.
“Hoo.”
Sheathing his blade, the old man looked at the three of them.
“My grandchildren have returned!”
He spread his arms toward Jegal Gwang and Jegal Rin.
“Grandfather!”
Jegal Gwang offered a polite greeting, but Jegal Rin ran straight into the old man’s embrace.
“Did you enjoy yourselves?”
“Yes. It was fun.”
Jegal Rin’s eyes sparkled with unusual brightness.
His granddaughter, who had long since grown weary of everything and always looked bored, was now full of vitality.
“And what was so fun?”
“Oppa Cheonwi was the most interesting of all.”
“Hmm? You’re already calling him Oppa?”
“We’re going to marry later, so what’s the big deal?”
“Heh. Looks like you’ve already gone off and become his wife. Very well—what made him so interesting?”
“Just as you said, Grandfather, Oppa Cheonwi was hiding his strength.”
Jegal Gyeong and Jegal Gwang pricked up their ears as well.
Until now Jegal Rin had spoken only in brief summaries.
But to the old man she explained everything in detail.
“I knew it. The legitimate heir of the Tang Clan could never be a dullard. Third-class? Hmph. Do you think a place like the Tang Clan would allow their heir to remain at the third-class level?”
“He even had the temperament of a grandmaster. He modified every Tang martial art he used.”
“Heavens. A monster of that caliber?”
“He even possessed a martial art that my Heavenly Eye could barely analyze.”
“What was it?”
This was the part that most intrigued the old man.
The Heavenly Eye was a pupil bestowed by the heavens themselves—an eye that saw through all things.
And yet there was a martial art it struggled to discern.
Of course his curiosity was piqued.
“It was an internal cultivation method. A power that seemed to wield poison qi freely…… yet it was neither the Tang Clan’s Tao-Ban Samyang Returning Origin Art nor the Ten Thousand Flows Returning to Origin Divine Art.”
The Tao-Ban Samyang Returning Origin Art was the internal method practiced by the Killing Emperor and the Black Dragon Emperor—a heart method that allowed the use of hidden weapons, sword arts, and poison arts alike.
“If it is neither of those two…… Hmm.”
“Even you don’t know it, Grandfather?”
“If even you could not identify it, Rin, there is only one possibility. Yet that internal method is supposed to be impossible to cultivate.”
“What method is it?”
Jegal Rin, Jegal Gwang, and Jegal Gyeong all leaned in, ears straining for the old man’s voice alone.
After a long moment of thought, the old man finally spoke.
“Tyrant Blood Poison Qi. It can only be the internal method of the Tang Clan’s founding ancestor, the Poison Sovereign. Even our own ancestors left records saying they failed to uncover it in those ancient days.”
“Tyrant Blood Poison Qi…….”
“An internal method even the Heavenly Eye cannot fully read.”
The three of them repeated the name, savoring it.
“Was there anything else of interest?”
“The Yin Spirit Ice Fox chose its master.”
“What!?”
The old man was more startled than he had been by the Tyrant Blood Poison Qi.
As a man of the Jegal Clan, he read the heavens’ divinations.
The prophecies of heaven.
When the Yin Spirit Ice Fox appeared and chose a master, the martial world would be dyed in blood.
And at the same time: “Of the two masters, one will die.”
“Don’t tell me that master is Tang Cheonwi?”
“Yes. The Yin Spirit Ice Fox was in Oppa Cheonwi’s hand. He’s left it with his little brother for now, though.”
“Of all people…….”
The old man’s expression grew grave.
His son, Jegal Gyeong, carefully asked,
“What is it, Father?”
“Fate is going to be terribly twisted.”
He looked up at the sky with a worried face.
To the old man, the Tang Clan was the family of his sworn brother—the household of the senior brother who had shown him kindness in their youth.
“The Yin Spirit Ice Fox is both a curse that brings slaughter and a hope that bestows a brilliantly shining star.”
“I am too ignorant to grasp Father’s meaning.”
“It means the male master is born under the Heavenly Killing Star, and the female master under the Purple Tenuity Star.”
“Hah!”
The two stars stood in opposition to each other.
One was a Blood Star—a star of carnage.
The other was a Sovereign Star—a star of nobility.
“The Heavenly Killing Star has already appeared, so I must discover who holds the Purple Tenuity Star.”
Jegal Mu—the Supreme Elder of the Jegal Clan, a previous-generation master known as “Mysterious Tablet” among the Six Thrones of the Heavenly River—vanished from the spot.