Chapter 348
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 348
Chapter Title: Will You Go Together?
"Of course, he got around everywhere by requisitioning supplies during maneuvers. Still, you're lucky. Thanks to that kid Cheo Mu-ha."
"Pardon?"
Yeon Ha-min asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"That guy. He finally realized the Fierce Dragon Corps doesn't get Poison-Antidote Pills."
"How?"
Dang Jin-san tilted his head.
"I just told him a little while ago."
Han Seol-bing smiled brightly.
"But how does that make us lucky..."
"That guy? Once he says something, he has to follow through. He announced we have Poison-Antidote Pills, so he'll make sure the Fierce Dragon Corps gets one each. That's the kind of man he is. He takes responsibility for his words."
"Then..."
Dang Jin-san trailed off, sensing something ominous.
"Yeah. He'll probably head to the Tang Clan soon. We already asked him to drop by after that last incident. Sigh. Guess I'll have to oversee your training again."
The cadets' faces grew grave at the mention of Ha Mu-baek going to the Tang Clan.
But when Han Seol-bing said she'd step in for him, their expressions relaxed back to normal.
They had feared Instructor Ji Gun-wi might take over again.
Ha Mu-baek was a tough instructor, but Ji Gun-wi was far worse.
Bad enough to make them miss Ha Mu-baek.
Ha Seol-ran gave a secret wry smile at her comrades' reactions.
It was because the cadets feared her master so much.
"So, when do you plan to leave, Instructor?"
Dang Jin-san asked cautiously.
Han Seol-bing shrugged as she replied.
"As soon as possible? Maybe even right now."
"What's that? Seol-bing."
Ha Mu-baek reappeared in the training grounds then.
He carried a light travel pack, suggesting he'd prepared to leave in an instant.
"I was just answering the kids' questions."
Han Seol-bing glanced at him with an 'I knew it' look and replied.
Ha Mu-baek eyed Dang Jin-san with a face that said he roughly grasped the conversation.
"Will you go together?"
"Pardon?"
Dang Jin-san blurted in surprise at the question.
"Sichuan Tang Clan. You haven't been back since you left. Want to come along?"
Dang Jin-san briefly pictured his home.
That witch from last time... no, his sister.
He no longer had much resistance to seeing her.
A relief, really.
But.
The moment he thought of his father, he hesitated.
He still didn't feel confident enough to stand tall before him.
And more decisively.
Ha Mu-baek's reason and purpose for visiting the Tang Clan.
The Poison-Antidote Pills.
He was going to stock up for the Fierce Dragon Corps.
About a hundred members heading to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest next year.
That meant requesting at least a hundred pills.
'Insane. What kind of item is that...'
He could already envision the storm brewing in the Tang Clan.
If he returned with Ha Mu-baek, he'd get swept up in it.
The instructor seemed capable of resolving anything under heaven.
But he wanted no part in issues involving his home clan and father.
Better not to go.
Dang Jin-san reached that conclusion.
"No. I'll stay here and focus on training."
"Fine. Got it."
Ha Mu-baek didn't ask twice.
A truly fortunate turn.
He then looked at Han Seol-bing.
"Yes. I'll take good care of the kids."
She answered first.
But Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"I found someone else to replace me. Instructor Ji Gun-wi, the one who helped out while I was in the North Sea. He agreed to help again this time. You just assist him as his deputy."
"Pardon?"
Han Seol-bing asked in slight surprise.
Why not her?
Last time had been her own business, but still.
She felt a twinge of disappointment.
"You're too soft. These kids need to be driven even harder now."
"Ah..."
It was something she'd heard from Ha Mu-baek constantly since their Hocheon Corps days.
That she was too lenient.
"Help him well. I could go to the North Sea thanks to that instructor."
Han Seol-bing's expression shifted at his following words.
"Ah..."
The one who enabled Ha Mu-baek's North Sea trip.
That made him a benefactor to her and the Ice Heaven Palace as well.
"Understood."
Han Seol-bing nodded in reply.
The cadets' faces stiffened at the exchange.
Dang Jin-san's especially.
"I-Instructor."
Dang Jin-san called out to Ha Mu-baek cautiously.
Ha Mu-baek looked at him.
"Maybe I should visit home after all, it's been so long..."
"Training, you said? Then I'm off."
With that, Ha Mu-baek departed briskly.
Dang Jin-san stared blankly at where he vanished.
Thinking he'd rather face the clan storm than train under Ji Gun-wi.
"Hmm."
The former head of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Poison Emperor Dang Ja-cheong mixed poisons with a grave expression.
It was poison his granddaughter had gathered from the Southern Barbarian lands.
He already knew the results from numerous clan experts' analyses.
Yet Dang Ja-cheong couldn't easily accept them.
He had no choice.
His epithet included 'Emperor'.
Poison Emperor.
A moniker the jianghu folk gave him, meaning he was unrivaled in poisons under heaven.
Give up like this?
Never.
That's why he reanalyzed it his own way, scrutinizing it anew.
"Vicious."
He reached a conclusion.
"A poison that shouldn't exist does..."
"What do you mean, Father?"
Clan Head Dang Mu-ryeong asked, having overheard the mutter.
Dang Ja-cheong furrowed his brow.
"I told you not to barge into my lab..."
A scolding laced with concern.
"I asked several times from outside. Even infused my qi."
Dang Mu-ryeong smiled faintly.
"Oh, right."
Dang Ja-cheong looked sheepish.
"Your focus hasn't changed from past to present. I can't even compare to the tip of your toe."
Dang Ja-cheong shook his head at the self-deprecating words.
"You have your own talents. I just enjoy holing up touching these things."
Even so, Dang Mu-ryeong gazed at his father with lingering regret.
He was still fully capable of leading the clan.
Yet he'd handed over the headship to him, claiming he preferred studying poisons, and shut himself away.
His feelings were inevitably complicated.
"But what did you mean? Exists yet can't exist."
Dang Mu-ryeong changed the subject.
The mutter he'd heard upon entering.
"Hm. Well... Do you believe in the existence of Poison Essences?"
Poison Essence.
The purified quintessence of poisons, where countless toxins intertwine, condense, and refine.
As the Tang Clan head, who vied for supremacy in poisons, he knew of them well.
And their existence?
"I do."
In poison research, such cases arise occasionally.
Different toxins synergizing into something deadlier.
If it happens in human labs.
Nature, boundless as it is, must harbor even worse.
We just haven't found them.
Dang Ja-cheong nodded at his son's reply.
"Yes. From my knowledge and experience, this level of toxicity requires a Poison Essence. A Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Essence at that."
Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Essence.
The quintessence of poisons condensed over ten millennia.
"Even if discovered, it can't be harvested or moved. Anything approaching would dissolve in the toxins."
"Even at your level, Father?"
"Ten Poisons Immunity? Meaningless before a Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Essence."
"Then what realm is needed?"
"Dunno. Never thought about it, but... Total Poison Immunity? Unaffected by all poisons in existence..."
Dang Ja-cheong grimaced even as he spoke, as if it sounded absurd.
"Or... become poison itself. Impervious even to Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Essences."
"..."
Dang Mu-ryeong was speechless.
He'd asked, but.
It was a realm from fantasy.
Not knowing how many poisons existed in the world.
Total Poison Immunity, blocking them all?
Unheard of.
No one even imagined such a level.
It seemed like something Dang Ja-cheong improvised.
"Hahaha..."
Dang Mu-ryeong let out a hollow laugh.
"That's why I said it exists yet can't. A Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Essence exists somewhere. But humans can't handle it. Yet a toxicity requiring one was found..."
Dang Mu-ryeong's face hardened.
Graver than he'd thought.
He'd deemed it serious enough that even Ten Poisons Immunity couldn't block it.
"Looks like I need to head to the Southern Barbarian lands myself."
"No!"
Dang Mu-ryeong cried out in alarm.
Far too dangerous.
A poison beyond Ten Poisons Immunity, and a Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Essence at that...
"Father, Grandfather. Are you there?"
Dang Ji-yeon's voice came from outside then.
The two exchanged glances before stepping out of the lab.
Dang Ji-yeon waited there for them.
"What is it?"
Dang Mu-ryeong asked.
She rarely sought both him and his father at once.
Unless it concerned the poison from the Southern Barbarian trip.
Thus, both men's faces were slightly tense.
"A guest has arrived at the clan."
Dang Ji-yeon replied demurely.
Both tilted their heads.
A guest warranting both?
Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong, or leaders of the Nine Great Sects, Five Great Clans, former experts.
None were scheduled to visit.
"Instructor Ha from the Dragon Training Pavilion has come."
Surprise lit Dang Ja-cheong's face at Dang Ji-yeon's words.
He'd invited him once, but.
Not expecting such a sudden arrival.
Since he'd extended the invitation.
Visiting Dang Ja-cheong was natural.
But why him, the clan head?
Considering Ha Mu-baek's status as former Hocheon Corps Leader and his monstrous martial arts.
He qualified to meet the head.
But no need for the head to greet first.
It was Dang Ja-cheong's guest, after all.
Dang Mu-ryeong eyed Dang Ji-yeon with that intent.
Assuming there was reason if he'd asked for him.
"Well... Instructor Ha made a request, but it's a bit..."
Dang Ji-yeon hesitated to speak.
She held a favorable view of Ha Mu-baek.
He'd at least made a human out of her brother Dang Jin-san.
But his sudden, unannounced demand.
Any Tang clansman would call it madness.
And it required the clan head's approval.
So she'd fetched her father.
But she couldn't relay it rashly.
Her father would deem it insane too.
"What request has you tongue-tied?"
Dang Ja-cheong urged impatiently.
"He asked for a hundred Poison-Antidote Pills by next year's expedition..."
Dang Mu-ryeong's face soured instantly at her words.
He nearly roared.
But held back, glancing at Dang Ja-cheong.
Ha Mu-baek was his guest, after all.
Poison-Antidote Pills.
Over sixty had been consumed on the Southern Barbarian trip.
The clan stockpiled as many as possible against unknowns.
Not easy to produce.
A full year yielded 150 to 200.
Ha Mu-baek demanded at least half the annual output.
No wonder his face twisted.
Concentrating all efforts could yield more, but only in true emergencies.
Like the last Martial World War.
"Hm. I wondered why the Hocheon Corps burned through so many in the last war... Guess the leader treated them lightly..."
Dang Mu-ryeong said, suppressing his anger.
Dang Ja-cheong stayed silent on this.
It was the clan head's domain, and Dang Mu-ryeong was the current one.
"I'll meet him myself. Lead the way."
Dang Ji-yeon moved at Dang Mu-ryeong's words.
Dang Ja-cheong followed slowly behind.
His guest, no matter what.
He had to go see.