Poison and Company (1)
Namgung Seha looked at me with a slightly teasing glint in her eyes. “You actually made it back alive, Sowoon?”
Her words stirred up the lingering disgust I still hadn’t shaken off. I shook my head vigorously and replied, “Don’t even talk about it. I nearly died for real.”
Pang Dowui’s tenacity knew no bounds. What kind of tenacity? His sparring tenacity. He clung to me with almost manic persistence, asking for a match every single day. If it had been once in a while, I could have brushed it off, but the daily requests were enough to drive anyone insane.
“I want to bow my head in sincere respect for that obsession. Truly.”
Namgung Seha chuckled softly from inside the carriage. “But what can we do?”
About what?
“We’re currently heading straight into the Poison Dragon’s lair.”
Ah. Suddenly, memories from the past flashed through my mind. The face of that crazy poison worm who had gone to the head of the Namgung Clan, offering up his entire fortune just to fight me once, rose vividly before my eyes. Afraid I might jinx myself with such ominous thoughts, I shook my head hard and told her, “He seemed fine the last time I saw him.”
When we had met him at Mount Song, the situation had been dire, yet he hadn’t shown even the slightest hint of that madness. People could change far more than one could imagine. So I was about half-convinced that the same tragic scene from the Hebei Pang Clan wouldn’t repeat itself here.
…Or would it?
Correction. I wasn’t entirely convinced. It was more like, I think it’ll probably be fine.
“Anyway, we’re almost there.”
Today marked exactly the fourth day since we had left the Hebei Pang Clan and set out for the Sichuan Tang Clan. Although we were traveling on horseback, I had expected our large group to move slowly. Yet we had arrived much sooner than anticipated.
Beyond that mountain, I could see magnificent purple-tiled roofs. In the entire Sichuan region, no one but the Tang Clan would dare use tiles of that color or scale. It had to be the Sichuan Tang Clan.
“Huh?”
I had just moved to the back of the carriage when I felt the entire procession, including the carriage itself, come to a sudden halt.
“What’s going on?”
Curious, I poked my head out and looked ahead. But the distance was too great; I couldn’t make out anything with the naked eye. I focused my inner energy into my eyes, sharpening my vision.
Then I saw faint purple masses. Strengthening my sight even further, I realized they weren’t masses at all—they were people wearing purple martial uniforms.
“What is it?” Namgung Seha asked from beside me.
I described exactly what I saw. “Hmm… There are people in purple martial uniforms. Not just a few—maybe ten to twenty of them.”
“Then…”
“It must be the Sichuan Tang Clan.”
It was obvious. Just like the purple-tiled roofs earlier, no one in Sichuan would dare wear uniforms resembling those of the Tang Clan warriors unless they wanted to invite trouble. No one else wore purple martial attire.
“Wait a second.”
I was about to return my vision to normal when a familiar face suddenly flashed across my sight.
“Looks like the Poison Dragon is there too.”
Why was the Poison Dragon here?
For a moment, I doubted my own eyes. I rubbed them vigorously with both hands and looked again. It was still the Poison Dragon. A man with hair that looked almost unkempt, sharp features, a fairly solid build, and an unmistakable aura. It was definitely him.
A question immediately came to mind. It wasn’t surprising for Tang Clan warriors to come this far out. They could have come ahead to greet guests or be moving for some other purpose. But the Poison Dragon was different.
The Poison Dragon was one of the young clan heirs of the Five Great Clans. His mere presence could spark big and small stories throughout the Murim world. For someone like him to casually walk all the way out here was by no means an easy or simple choice, no matter the reason.
“He really is impossible to pin down…”
Did he think he was the Azure Dragon or something? I let out a hollow sigh, utterly dumbfounded. As I marveled at how there wasn’t a single normal person around me, I noticed Namgung Seha staring at me intently. Feeling her gaze, I asked, “What?”
“Aren’t you curious? Why the Poison Dragon would come all the way out here?”
“Well, I am curious, but…”
It was impossible not to be curious. However—
“Do I really need to ask right now?”
We were going to meet him at the Sichuan Tang Clan soon anyway. Honestly, once we got inside, we could sit down and talk at length in comfort.
Namgung Seha shook her head with a sigh. Why the sudden sigh? I wondered if something was bothering her when Namgung Hye carefully poked her head out from the side and whispered in my ear.
“Oppa, are you an idiot? She’s telling you to go find out for her.”
I froze, too stunned to speak. Wasn’t that a completely different meaning? Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered hearing that women sometimes spoke indirectly like that. But did this really need to be said in such a roundabout way? I genuinely couldn’t understand their mindset.
“…Is that true?”
When I asked her to confirm, she shrugged with an ambiguous tone. “Who knows? It could be, or it might not.”
That meant yes. She had been so blatant about it that even I could tell. I dismounted from my horse.
Then, carefully weaving between the members of the procession, I hurried forward.
“Hmm?”
The first to notice me approaching was the Poison Dragon. To be precise, it was Namgung Jehyun who turned his head after sensing my presence, but it didn’t really matter.
“Should I say it’s been a while, Poison Dragon?”
“A while? We met not long ago, so let’s just say I’m glad to see you.”
I greeted him warmly, and the Poison Dragon returned the courtesy.
“Why did you suddenly come out here? All the way from the back of the line.”
Namgung Jehyun, having finished his greeting with the Poison Dragon, looked at me and asked.
“Seha told me to come up front and find out what was happening.”
He nodded slowly, then glanced behind him. From the way he looked toward the carriages, it seemed he was checking on Namgung Seha. Then he turned back to me and said, “It’s nothing serious.”
As he spoke, he drew a half-circle in the air with the tip of the sword he was holding.
I followed the sword’s path with my eyes. Only then did things I hadn’t noticed before come into view. A faint mist. It was white but not transparent, tinged with a greenish hue. No matter how I looked at it, it was clearly the poisonous mist used by the Tang Clan warriors.
“Don’t misunderstand, Extreme Sword Dragon. We’re not crazy enough to attack the Namgung Clan.”
Before any strange thoughts could fully form, the Poison Dragon promptly cut off the chain of my suspicions.
Then why had they spread poisonous mist across this mountain valley?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, Namgung Jehyun spoke to me.
“Lately, there have been frequent civilian casualties. They’re using that as an opportunity to clear out all the mountain bandits around the Sichuan Tang Clan.”
As if they had rehearsed this, the Poison Dragon naturally stepped aside and pointed behind him with his thumb. Only then could I clearly see Tang Clan warriors cleaning up what were unmistakably the corpses of bandits.
“So you’re clearing away the poisonous mist right now?”
It was a lethal poisonous mist designed to exterminate the bandits. It didn’t affect me, since poison had no effect on me, or experts at the Super Peak Realm or above with substantial inner energy. But it was different for ordinary warriors, which explained why their movement had been delayed.
“That’s right. We didn’t expect to meet like this, and the detoxification pills we brought were only for our own people…”
As he spoke, the Poison Dragon casually waved his hand, dispersing a bit of the poisonous mist. The mist, however, didn’t scatter easily—probably because of how it had been deployed. …Wait a minute. Even for the Tang Clan, the only person here capable of deploying poison directly was the Poison Dragon, wasn’t it?
“You did it yourself?”
This guy was seriously insane. What young clan heir would personally come all the way out here just to wipe out some mountain bandits? Of course, it was good that a powerful martial artist like the Poison Dragon was taking action, but it was hardly a normal situation.
When I asked, the Poison Dragon smiled lightly and said, “Didn’t I tell you before? I am proud of my poison arts and the Tang surname. I don’t want to feel ashamed in front of either of them.”
“Pushing my subordinates forward while I sit alone beneath the family’s roof, living in comfort—that would be a shameful thing.”
His words struck a chord in my chest. They didn’t sound like something that would come from the Poison Dragon. Just as he had said before, his roots were in the Tang Clan. It meant he had continued forward without forgetting that realization.
“Are you sure you’re not someone else…”
I was about to jokingly ask if he was really the same person when he added with a wry smile, “Ah. Of course, there was also a tiny selfish reason—I wanted to stretch my hands after so long.”
As expected, people didn’t change so easily, and the Poison Dragon was no exception. His words instantly sucked all the emotion out of the moment. I let out a small chuckle and said, “Then I’ll return to my place for now. I’ll come find you again once we reach the clan.”
With that, I bowed to him and turned to leave. He responded to my farewell with a bright smile.
“I’ll be waiting.”