The Beginning of a Small Revenge
Tang Cheolung barked out in pure irritation.
“What the hell are you mumbling about by yourself!”
He immediately drove a fist straight at Tang Cheonwi’s face. The side-branch brats behind him snickered.
“Cheolung’s punch is gonna hurt like hell.”
“Wonder if he’ll even stay conscious, heh.”
“Cheolung, don’t knock him out in one shot.”
Every last one of them was certain Tang Cheolung would win.
Thud!
The fist cracked against Tang Cheonwi’s cheek.
And yet…
“Huh?”
Tang Cheonwi’s head merely turned with the blow. Far from collapsing, a smile was already curling across his lips.
“Just so we’re clear—you hit first. You struck the eldest young master of the Tang Clan.”
The moment that vicious smile deepened on his face—
Crack!
“Aaaargh!”
Tang Cheolung’s scream tore through the air. The arm he had thrown was twisted at a grotesque, unnatural angle. And that still wasn’t enough.
“This really hurts, so clench your teeth.”
Keeping the limb already broken, Tang Cheonwi spun the wrist another full turn.
“Gyaaaaah!”
Tang Cheolung’s eyes rolled white under pain he had never tasted in his life.
“Can’t have you fainting on me.”
Tang Cheonwi’s fingers found the pressure points. Clarity slammed back into Cheolung’s mind in an instant—then the agony flooded in right behind it.
“Guhhh…”
“Acting weak over something this mild?”
Tang Cheonwi’s nature was pure Tang Clan blood. Cruel. Poisonous. Once he decided someone was an enemy, he never showed the slightest mercy. He made certain the other party felt every possible shred of pain.
“Do you know what matters most in the Tang Clan?”
He seized the wheezing boy’s ankle.
“These feet. When a fight turns against you, the feet that let you run are the real treasure.”
The present-day Tang Clan could no longer crush an enemy in a single breath the way other great houses did. They killed slowly—with Poison Use Technique, hidden weapons, and sword arts. That was why footwork and lightness skills were everything.
“The second you become a cripple, the family has no more use for you.”
“Uuurgh…”
Even through the blinding pain, terror flooded Tang Cheolung. He thrashed, begging—stop, I was wrong, forgive me—but Tang Cheonwi never so much as glanced at the pleas.
“I’ll leave you your life. Your hands and feet, though—those are mine.”
Crack!
“Gyaaaaah!”
Another scream ripped free as Tang Cheonwi snapped the remaining ankle. Then he drew a short dagger from his robes and severed the tendons of both legs with clean, merciless cuts.
“Ah… that feels better.”
He looked down at the ruined heap that had once been Tang Cheolung. One of the little dogs who had driven his brother toward death was finished. He had not taken the life, yet the boy would never again receive the treatment he once enjoyed. No—he would be discarded by the clan for the simple crime of being useless.
“One down.”
He turned. The remaining brats stood frozen, faces blank with disbelief.
“How…?”
“Cheolung was the strongest among us…”
“A guy who lost his dantian beat Cheolung? That can’t be real!”
They still had not grasped the situation.
“Does it make any sense for me—the eldest young master of the Tang Clan—to take a beating from side-branch trash like you?”
One moment Tang Cheonwi stood over Cheolung; the next he was already among the other two.
“Hieeek!”
“Wh-when did—mph!”
His hands clamped onto both heads and smashed them face-first into the dirt.
“Guh!”
“You two need the same lesson for raising your fists against me.”
He gave them exactly what he had given Cheolung—limbs shattered, leg meridians cut. Torn screams filled the air. They begged and sobbed for mercy. Tang Cheonwi never stopped until both were ragged wrecks.
“Hah. Not a bad feel in the hands.”
The beginning of a small revenge. Refreshing.
[I figured with your personality you’d just kill them. This is unexpected.]
Their parents still have work to do.
A child returned home as a cripple. What parent would sit quietly? They would move for revenge without fail. And if the rats hiding behind them moved as well, so much the better.
“Work’s finished here. Time to go find the Black Dragon Gold Pill.”
Tang Cheonwi left the broken boys where they lay and walked away.
Clan Lord Tang Baek returned to Black Dragon Hall and issued his command to his brothers.
“All of you, go find a method to replace the Poison Blood Rite.”
“Understood.”
“Leave it to us, Clan Lord Brother.”
Smiles they could not quite hide touched their lips—pure, unconcealed joy. Once they had withdrawn, only Tang Ho and Tang Yuhyeon remained.
Tang Yuhyeon fidgeted, then carefully opened his mouth.
“Um… Father, did you have something to say to me…?”
He had always feared his father. In truth, every soul in the Tang Clan feared Tang Baek. The Black Dragon Emperor. The current strongest under heaven.
“Did your brother seem the same as usual?”
“I… don’t understand what you mean…”
“He seemed a little more rebellious. That is why I asked.”
“He looked like the brother I know…”
“Is that so.”
“Did you sense something different, Father?”
“Hmm.”
Tang Baek fell silent for a moment, then simply said,
“Return to your training.”
He gave no answer to his son’s question. As always. Tang Yuhyeon was used to it.
“Then this son shall take his leave.”
He bowed and turned. Tang Baek’s voice followed his back.
“For the time being, you are forbidden to meet your brother.”
“What?”
Tang Yuhyeon frowned, the unspoken Why all of a sudden? plain on his face. The reason came at once.
“The Sichuan Regional Assembly is soon. If you disgrace yourself by wasting time with your brother, I will not forgive it.”
The Sichuan Regional Assembly was the regular gathering of the great clans based in Sichuan. A period of formal socializing—during which the heirs often sparred. This time the Tang Clan’s representative would be Tang Yuhyeon.
“Yes…”
He answered with a dejected look and trudged out. Watching that retreating figure, Tang Ho smiled faintly.
“Truly affectionate brothers. Reminds me of us, doesn’t it?”
“Spare me the nonsense.”
The moment Tang Yuhyeon vanished completely from Black Dragon Hall—
“Uwek!”
Tang Baek vomited blood.
“I knew this would happen the moment you used internal energy.”
Tang Ho hurriedly produced a pill from his robes. Tang Baek swallowed it without hesitation.
“Nn…”
The Hundred Flowers Detoxification Pill—the Tang Clan’s secret high-grade antidote. Ordinary poisons withered before it. Even so, it could only suppress the outbreaks; it could not purge the poison already nested inside Tang Baek’s body.
“The poison seems to be growing stronger.”
“I can still endure.”
Color slowly returned to his ashen face. He wiped the blood from his lips and sank into his chair.
“A vicious poison indeed. Even you, who are immune to all poisons, can only hold it down.”
Tang Baek was currently poisoned. Colorless, odorless, formless—the Soul-Sealing Extreme Poison.
“No need to make a fuss. I will not die from something like this.”
“Who could have poisoned you, Brother…”
Tang Baek changed the subject at once.
“Your acting has improved. You played the doting uncle who treasures his nephew to perfection.”
Tang Ho snorted a laugh.
“Same to you. The instant you flung Cheonwi into the wall, you struck the vital point with Finger Bullet Technique. Who else under heaven could manage a method like that—while fooling every eye in the room?”
Only Tang Baek could even attempt such a feat.
“You noticed after all.”
“I’ve watched you longer than a day or two. But was all that truly necessary?”
“Would you have me, as Clan Lord, openly favor my own son?”
“And why not?”
Tang Ho deliberately needled him. The fact that a father could not openly protect his child stoked a slow anger. The reason was simple: because he was Clan Lord. The Sichuan Tang Clan prized the legitimate bloodline above all else—yet that very rule contained a fatal flaw. A Clan Lord must never show favoritism to the legitimate heir, nor gift him anything. The legitimate line had to grow strong on its own. That single creed was why Tang Baek had always been so harsh with Cheonwi.
“You know the reason better than anyone.”
“Then change the rule yourself. The elders would not dare object.”
“If you can persuade Father, I will consider it.”
Tang Ho took a quick step back.
“How could a second son dare meddle in the eldest’s affairs?”
Even retired and living in seclusion, their father remained a terrifying presence.
“I myself believe the legitimate heir must grow strong.”
“Of course. That is how you became Clan Lord. Yet with Cheonwi you are especially cruel.”
“Which is why I secretly struck the vital point for him.”
“And you only did that after he became a poison body. If you had done it when he had nothing, the distance between father and son might never have grown.”
Only Tang Ho could speak so freely. Their lifelong closeness made it possible.
“A Clan Lord growing close to his eldest son brings nothing good. It merely hands enemies an excuse.”
The Tang Clan’s eldest sons had always drawn heavy fire from enemies—for the same reason the clan prized the legitimate line. That bloodline produced the greatest martial talent, stronger than any other vein. Through centuries that truth had never changed, and so the enemies of the Tang Clan always targeted the heir first.
“This is the perfect time for him to die. Worst of all, there is no one standing behind Cheonwi.”
“I am here.”
“Can you kill your own brothers for Cheonwi’s sake?”
Tang Baek’s blunt question made Tang Ho shake his head.
“I do not think I could.”
“Exactly. That is why you cannot be his true backer. He needs an ally willing to slaughter Tang blood if it means protecting him.”
“Is that why you invited the Jegal Clan to this Sichuan Regional Assembly?”
Tang Baek nodded.
“Contact the Jegal Clan in secret.”
“Will Cheonwi even agree?”
“You are the uncle he still likes best, are you not?”
“Haa… so much for being the good uncle.”
Tang Ho already felt the headache forming. He could see his delinquent nephew’s reaction with perfect clarity.
The place Tang Cheonwi reached was a small lake inside the clan grounds—Moon Shadow Pond, the pool where the moon’s reflection sank. The Black Dragon Gold Pill was said to sleep beneath its waters.
“So it’s down there.”
[Full moon tonight. Perfect timing. The Black Dragon Gold Pill will show itself soon.]
The instant the full moon completely illuminated Moon Shadow Pond, a strange energy rose from its depths.
“This is—!”
[You can feel it, then. Only someone who has become a Ten Thousand Poison Ghost by the age of fifteen can sense the Black Dragon Gold Pill’s aura.]
That was why no one had ever claimed it. No one in history had reached the realm of Ten Thousand Poison Ghost at fifteen. He was the first. What he had failed to obtain in his previous life would become his in this one.
[Circulate Tyrant Blood Poison Qi as you enter.]
“You’re being surprisingly helpful.”
[Hmph. I already agreed to give it to you. Not like I have a choice.]
Wrapped in the protective mantle of Tyrant Blood Poison Qi, he stepped into the lake.
Splash.
The water was thick with murderous poison—poison born of the Black Dragon Gold Pill itself. There on the lake bed the pill had revealed its form, freely exhaling toxic qi in every direction.
An elixir that surpasses even complete poison immunity—turning any toxin into internal energy. With this, I can protect Yuhyeon from the Soul-Destroying Mountain.
Soul-Destroying Mountain: the formless poison that had once killed Tang Yuhyeon. A poison capable of slaying even the strongest under heaven. One of the few things that could stand against it was the Black Dragon Gold Pill now resting below.
[Huh? You’re giving something this precious to your little brother?]
Having read his thoughts, Hwancheonjihwan recoiled in shock.
That’s why I made the bet with you in the first place.
[There’s actually a human rock-head who refuses to swallow a treasure like that…]
He already possessed a monstrous body—the body of a Ten Thousand Poison Ghost, also called the Poison-Ghost Body. He had no need to consume the pill himself.