Chapter 352
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 352
Chapter Title: So Then
Indeed.
Without a doubt.
It was the energy of the Famed Poison Technique.
Similar yet different from the Soul-Extraction Pure White Famed Poison Technique that he himself practiced.
Yet within the poison, he could faintly sense the unique essence of the Famed Poison Technique.
"So this is the poison harvested from the Southern Frontier?"
"Yes."
Gong Dok-haeng replied to Yeo Hong-gi's question with a grave expression.
"Hmmm..."
Yeo Hong-gi sank deep into thought.
Geuk In-cheong watched his master with eyes full of confusion.
"Master... what in the world..."
He asked because he truly didn't understand.
But what returned was Yeo Hong-gi's icy glare.
"You fool. You've been neglecting your training in the Famed Poison Technique. Even faintly as it is, how could you not sense the Famed Poison Technique's energy contained within?"
At the reprimand,
Geuk In-cheong bowed his head deeply.
And avoiding his master's gaze, he shot a fierce look at Gong Dok-haeng.
This mess is all because that bastard came here with this garbage.
"You two, leave us."
Since Yeo Hong-gi spoke with a serious face, the two bowed and exited the laboratory.
Fresh air filled his lungs.
"Hoo."
Geuk In-cheong let out a deep sigh.
Not because the air was fresh.
But because he had escaped his master's terrifying eyes.
"You bastard. Did you come here just to screw me over?"
A savage voice spilled from Geuk In-cheong's mouth.
"No, senior brother. There was Famed Poison Technique energy in the poison. Don't you know what that means?"
"Famed Poison Technique? I didn't sense anything like that."
Geuk In-cheong scoffed in disbelief at Gong Dok-haeng's words.
"But Master said there was Famed Poison Technique energy in it..."
Indeed.
He had received such a reprimand.
But Geuk In-cheong blamed everything on Gong Dok-haeng and had momentarily forgotten that fact.
"..."
Geuk In-cheong fell silent.
He couldn't deny his master's words.
"So what? Is that such a big deal that you had to come all the way to Wuchang? Were you trying to embarrass me in front of Master?"
Geuk In-cheong was still seething.
It stemmed from his inferiority complex.
He was the chief disciple, the eldest.
Yet he felt inferior to the junior brother right below him.
"No, no. The Famed Poison Technique, mastered by only three people in the world: Master, you, and me. You didn't infuse that poison with Famed Poison Technique energy just to oust me, did you?!"
The inferiority complex soon ballooned into suspicion.
Geuk In-cheong now seemed convinced his delusion was truth, even emanating killing intent.
"Senior brother... I'm sorry. It seems my arrival has clouded your judgment."
Gong Dok-haeng bowed deeply at the sight of Geuk In-cheong's demeanor.
A sincere apology.
He truly harbored no ambition for the valley master's seat.
He only wished for Thousand Poison Valley to prosper.
Geuk In-cheong stared at his junior brother with eyes still brimming with killing intent.
His junior's words implied that Geuk In-cheong wasn't seeing things clearly in his rage.
Still glaring with bulging eyes, Geuk In-cheong sorted his thoughts.
No, there was nothing to sort.
Once his anger subsided, he immediately realized how absurd his suspicions had been.
"Famed Poison Technique, Famed Poison Technique... poison infused with its energy... That level is only possible for Master. How could... It shouldn't exist..."
Indeed.
Only three people in the world practiced the Famed Poison Technique.
His master and the two brothers.
Among them, only Yeo Hong-gi had reached the level to subtly infuse poison with its energy.
Yet such poison had appeared in the Southern Frontier.
It was impossible.
"That's why I had to come myself. I'm sorry, senior brother."
Gong Dok-haeng confirmed reason had returned to Geuk In-cheong's eyes and bowed once more before taking his leave.
He headed outside the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
He knew staying would only stoke his senior brother's anger.
Gong Dok-haeng planned to stay a few days at a suitable inn outside the alliance before returning to Thousand Poison Valley.
He had delivered everything to his master, so he could leave, but he decided to linger in case his master summoned him.
"Famed Poison Technique..."
Yeo Hong-gi murmured lowly.
And delved into his memories.
A fact unknown to his two disciples.
There were not one, but two Famed Poison Techniques.
One had been lost, so effectively just one, but still.
"Master..."
Yeo Hong-gi intoned with a voice laced with complex emotions.
"And martial uncle..."
Even more tangled emotions in his voice.
"Could it be him?"
Yeo Hong-gi recalled a man from his faded memories.
Always kind and benevolent.
The spitting image of the grandmaster Yagul Han, he had even been considered for the next valley master.
But martial uncle Myo Gu-eung had vanished.
By the hand of his own master, Wang Sa-geon.
The reason? The pretext?
"Master's greed and ambition..."
Young as he was then, Yeo Hong-gi remembered most of it.
After the grandmaster passed and the mourning ended.
On the day martial uncle Myo Gu-eung should have become valley master.
Master Wang Sa-geon mobilized the valley's disciples.
Incitement, perhaps?
The pretext was origin.
Martial uncle Myo Gu-eung was from beyond the borders.
To become valley master, Wang Sa-geon had betrayed even his own master.
Immediately after Yagul Han's funeral.
It was an outrage against heaven and earth.
He incited those dissatisfied with the grandmaster's foreign origins.
Another foreign valley master would hand Thousand Poison Valley to outsiders, they said.
An absurd claim.
Thousand Poison Valley was Thousand Poison Valley. Only the master was foreign.
Handing it to outsiders? Ridiculous.
A moment's thought would reveal it as nonsense.
Yet the valley moved.
To protect it from outsiders, they followed his words.
They cast out the grandmaster's chief disciple, who should have been the new valley master.
No, they tried to kill him.
But he escaped.
What was lost then was the other Famed Poison Technique.
Myriad Desolation Pure White Famed Poison Technique.
His master, not being sub-valley master, hadn't learned it, though he vaguely knew of it.
'A bizarre poison art, fantastical and utterly implausible.'
His master had called it that.
So it didn't matter if it was lost.
The fearsome Soul-Extraction Pure White Famed Poison Technique remained.
Yet now.
The poison upheaving the Southern Frontier and alarming the Central Plains.
Bore traces of the Famed Poison Technique.
Not the Soul-Extraction Pure White one, so only one remained.
"Myriad Desolation Pure White Famed Poison Technique. So you're alive, martial uncle..."
Yeo Hong-gi murmured softly.
Now that he knew the truth, it was time to consider countermeasures.
If he were his martial uncle, with such power in hand, what would he do?
Obvious, too obvious.
Revenge.
Against Thousand Poison Valley that abandoned him, and the Central Plains.
At that thought,
Yeo Hong-gi flinched and looked again at the small glass vial of poison.
"Ha. So that's it..."
Yeo Hong-gi realized.
The Famed Poison Technique energy in that poison was his martial uncle's intention.
Someone capable of spreading such terrifying poison could have erased the traces.
Yet he left them faint.
A warning and notice to him.
Prepare, for I have returned to the Central Plains.
Yeo Hong-gi's eyes shook, plunged into chaos beyond mere complexity.
The strongest emotion within.
Resentment.
The one who caused the tragedy was his master, Wang Sa-geon.
He had been merely a young disciple then.
"Bearing master's faults is a disciple's fate..."
But the resentment soon faded, replaced by fear.
A poison that even Immunity to All Poisons couldn't fully block.
He clearly recognized where its end led.
The three set out early in the morning.
Only one came to see them off.
Tang Ja-cheong.
The clan head himself came alone to bid them farewell.
They departed quietly.
The Tang Clan retainers didn't even know they had left.
Given the sensitivity, it was Tang Ja-cheong's will to move discreetly.
Tang Ja-cheong, Ha Mu-baek, Tang Ji-yeon.
The three galloped swiftly.
First by horse as far as roads allowed.
Then on foot.
Tang Ji-yeon, who had already been to the Southern Frontier, led the way.
Tang Ja-cheong followed.
Ha Mu-baek brought up the rear.
The roads to Yunnan were well-paved, posing no obstacles to their ride.
But the moment they left Yunnan,
Rough terrain loomed ahead.
From there, they used lightness skill.
The first place they reached was the village Tang Ji-yeon had visited before.
The three entered the village.
Ha Mu-baek furrowed his brow.
For a fleeting instant, he felt poison trying to invade his body.
Even much diluted, it was this potent.
"Hm. Some poison lingers still."
Tang Ja-cheong felt the same, his face stiff.
"How is it?"
Even with the Blood Poison Pearl, Tang Ji-yeon sensed a trace amount.
But incomparable to before.
She had the Blood Poison Bead, not just the antidote.
And more time had passed.
"Let's head deeper."
Tang Ja-cheong took the lead.
Thus, they pushed against the poison-struck villages into the depths of the Southern Frontier.
The poison in discovered villages grew fainter.
Natural, as more time had passed there.
However, the surroundings grew harsher.
More vicious poisons.
Signaling their approach to even deeper Southern Frontier.
"You alright?"
Tang Ja-cheong asked Tang Ji-yeon with concern.
Even handling poison, a woman's body.
Enduring this place full of grotesque bugs, snakes, toads would be grueling.
"I-It's bearable..."
Tang Ji-yeon replied with a slightly pale face.
For her, bugs were worse than poison, but she couldn't show weakness.
It was her own stubborn insistence to come along.
Besides, Tang Ja-cheong and Ha Mu-baek seemed unfazed, so she couldn't reveal discomfort.
They arrived at that land.
"Th-this is..."
Tang Ja-cheong muttered in disbelief.
"Urk."
Tang Ji-yeon's face blanched, then turned ashen.
As she retched,
The Blood Poison Pearl in her bosom glowed.
Only then did her complexion return to normal.
Tang Ja-cheong circulated his inner energy to block the poison.
Ha Mu-baek did the same.
The three stared at the scene before them in dazed horror.
A land of death.
No, a land soaked in poison.
Unlike the villages so far.
Whatever had existed here was unknowable, but vicious poison still lingered.
The silver lining amid misfortune.
The poison was just barely blockable with Immunity to All Poisons.
"We need some preparation before going further."
Tang Ja-cheong said gravely.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
"Seems so."
The day was already waning.
They retreated slightly from the land of death to prepare camp.
One oddity.
Perhaps due to that land.
No venomous creatures.
No grotesque bugs, snakes, toads...
Nothing.
No insect cries, only silence prevailed.
After spending the night, morning came.
Tang Ja-cheong had scouted the surroundings busily since dawn and returned.
"How is it, Grandfather?"
Tang Ji-yeon asked as she greeted him.
"Hm. Two kinds of poison, perhaps..."
Tang Ja-cheong said with a troubled face.
Ha Mu-baek and Tang Ji-yeon's gazes turned to him.
"One is the poison we've been tracking. Presumed to be from the Poison Essence."
Obvious, since they'd followed its traces.
But the puzzle was,
The poison had been steadily weakening, yet here it suddenly intensified.
"And that poison is still diluted. However."
Tang Ja-cheong said gravely.
"It seems the local venomous creatures were struck by it. Poisonous insects, snakes, frogs, pythons, plants—all melted away upon encountering a fiercer poison."
"Ah..."
Tang Ji-yeon let out an exclamation as the scenario formed in her mind.
"Then the poison left by those dead creatures..."
"Yes. Entwined and mingled... creating an immense poison field. Influenced faintly by the lingering Poison Essence, it became vicious enough to momentarily breach even Immunity to All Poisons..."
At the grandfather and granddaughter's words, Ha Mu-baek tilted his head.
"Then shouldn't the Poison Essence poison have grown fiercer? The other creatures' poisons are rampant."
Tang Ja-cheong shook his head at the question.
"Natural for similar poisons. But this is Poison Essence. The quintessence and purification of poison. The spread poison is fierce, but it doesn't affect the Essence. Rather, those poisons are influenced by the Essence's. Different levels. Thus, it only momentarily breaches Immunity to All Poisons, not fully shattering it. The Essence's poison is faint."
Ha Mu-baek nodded at Tang Ja-cheong's long explanation.
"Then what do we do?"
"That's the problem."
Tang Ja-cheong wore a pensive expression at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"We must cross that land... Even momentary breaches accumulate, and we could still be poisoned."
Tang Ja-cheong gazed at the land opposite.
No telling how far it extended.
Short, they'd be fine. Long, dangerous.
Such eyes.
Ha Mu-baek looked at the same spot.
And asked.
"So, most of the poison spread there is different from the Poison Essence's, right? The Essence's poison remains faint."
Tang Ja-cheong nodded at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"In that case."
Ha Mu-baek raised his right palm upward.
A small flame flickered to life above it.