Chapter 364
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 364
Chapter Title: Is This the End?
Ha Mu-baek had returned.
Dang Ja-cheong wore a grave expression as he pressed his palm against Dang Ji-yeon's Mingmen acupoint, infusing her with energy.
He had activated the Myriad Streams Returning Origin Poison Art to bolster her fight against the poison.
It was all thanks to Ha Mu-baek, who had frozen every trace of poisonous qi in the area before departing.
However.
Dang Ji-yeon's condition was dire.
Her hands and feet, even her face, had turned pitch black.
The parts hidden by her clothes were undoubtedly the same.
Her once porcelain-white skin had become like this from the poisoning.
As if she had turned into an ink-black figure.
She had become entirely black, like a person.
Poisonous qi seeped even from her breaths.
Though that poison flowed back into Dang Ja-cheong, poisoning him in turn, he ignored it completely.
He poured every ounce of his power into saving his granddaughter alone.
Ha Mu-baek wanted to help as well.
But his body held no energy left.
He hurriedly entered meditation.
Hoping she would endure.
A moment later.
Having recovered some internal energy, Ha Mu-baek opened his eyes.
His fire and ice energies had partially recovered alongside his internal energy.
In that time, Dang Ja-cheong's poisoning had advanced—his face now tinged bluish-black.
If it progressed further, he too would turn black.
Fortunately, Dang Ji-yeon's condition hadn't worsened.
However.
The glow of the Blood Poison Pearl nestled against her chest was steadily fading.
A sign that the pearl's limits were drawing near.
"I'll take over now."
Ha Mu-baek drew near and spoke.
But Dang Ja-cheong didn't yield his place easily.
He had no choice.
They were barely holding on by jointly circulating the Myriad Streams Returning Origin Poison Art—one his granddaughter had learned, the other perfected by him.
Halting it now?
It would be far too risky.
"Can you save her?"
He forced the words out with great effort.
"......"
Ha Mu-baek had no answer.
Not even he could be certain.
"The instant I withdraw the Myriad Streams Returning Origin Art... the poison will devour Yeon-ah..."
Dang Ja-cheong's faint voice leaked out as he barely moved his lips.
Ha Mu-baek activated the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
He had paused it only after exhausting all his energy.
Now, Dang Ji-yeon's internals appeared in his vision.
The poison qi had invaded everything.
Yet her dantian, heart, and brain.
These three were barely holding out.
A razor-thin situation.
The moment he understood Dang Ja-cheong's words.
The fleeting gap as Dang Ja-cheong withdrew his energy and Ha Mu-baek infused his own to stabilize.
In that interval.
The poison qi would likely consume her dantian, heart, and brain entirely.
The outcome.
Death.
That was why Dang Ja-cheong desperately channeled energy into Dang Ji-yeon even as he poisoned himself.
A situation truly like a lamp flickering in the wind.
Dang Ja-cheong could not pull his hand from her Mingmen acupoint.
'Then.'
Ha Mu-baek carefully grasped the wrist of Dang Ji-yeon, who sat cross-legged.
She twitched faintly.
But only that much.
The radial pulse.
To infuse his internal energy through it.
In truth, an act fraught with mortal peril.
Another was already aiding her resistance through the Mingmen acupoint.
For one who cultivated entirely different internal energy to inject via the radial pulse.
It could plunge her into qi deviation and death.
Yet Dang Ja-cheong did not stop him.
At this point, they had to grasp at any straw.
Dang Ja-cheong fully grasped the dire reality.
Even as he desperately poured forth all his power.
All he achieved was delaying his granddaughter's death.
The moment the Blood Poison Pearl she carried expended its power.
He alone could not bear it.
His granddaughter would meet her end, and the backlash would render his own poisoning fatal.
In the end, even he could not escape death.
Knowing this hopeless conclusion loomed before them, unable to flee, slowly marching toward it.
He could only hope Ha Mu-baek would do something.
Even if that attempt ended in death.
They would both die anyway at this rate.
Facing Dang Ji-yeon cross-legged, Ha Mu-baek held her wrist and closed his eyes.
He trickled in a single thread of internal energy, ever so carefully.
The energy of the Infinite Formless Heart Method was supple, harmonizing seamlessly with any other.
Slowly, it probed her internals.
However. It was no easy task.
Her meridians brimmed with poison qi, leaving not the slightest gap.
Ha Mu-baek could scarcely move his energy.
Using the narrow path barely carved by Dang Ja-cheong's Myriad Streams Returning Origin Poison Art, he scrutinized her internals.
'Dire.'
Not just the meridians, but the fine vessels too had been invaded.
Truly, only the dantian, heart, and brain held out by a thread.
The Blood Poison Pearl's efficacy kept the meridians and fine vessels from melting into the poison.
Of course, Dang Ja-cheong's aid was immense.
Should either falter.
Meridians, fine vessels, dantian, heart, and brain would dissolve in an instant.
After that.
Her entire body would melt, leaving but a puddle of toxin.
There was no means now to control the poison qi from outside.
If Ha Mu-baek tried driving it out.
The moment he forced his internal energy in.
Her meridians would rupture, unable to endure.
A true impasse.
Unable to press forward against the poison, nor retreat and leave it be.
'A way... must find a way...'
Ha Mu-baek pondered gravely.
The crisis mounting ever more precariously with each passing moment.
Yet Ha Mu-baek did not panic.
Had he not felt how panic itself turns to poison, even in his battle moments ago with Myo Gu-eung?
'A way... there is one!'
And at last, he found it.
A method every bit as perilous.
Yet, in this moment, the path with the highest chance for all three to survive.
He enacted it the instant it dawned on him.
'Suction Binding.'
Through her wrist.
Ha Mu-baek began slowly absorbing the poison qi that filled her internals.
Given the circumstances, he yearned to suck it out at utmost speed—but that would shatter her meridians.
Slowly and softly.
Gradually.
He drew out the poison.
A flicker of relief crossed Dang Ja-cheong's face.
He had sensed the poison qi's fierce momentum soften ever so slightly.
Trusting Ha Mu-baek had been the right call; he redoubled his Myriad Streams Returning Origin Poison Art.
And so.
He grasped the reason for the poison's easing.
The poison qi was flowing... somewhere.
How in the world was it being vented?
With eyes closed, channeling energy in desperate resistance against the poison.
Dang Ja-cheong could never have imagined Ha Mu-baek was absorbing it via Suction Binding.
He simply marveled at—and gave thanks for—Ha Mu-baek's extraordinary prowess.
As the poison dwindled bit by bit, color slowly returned to Dang Ji-yeon's cheeks.
When her porcelain skin was restored.
Crack.
The fading Blood Poison Pearl at last expended its power and shattered.
"Huu."
At that moment, Dang Ja-cheong lifted his hand from her Mingmen acupoint and exhaled deeply.
He immediately entered meditation.
Now was the time to purge the poison that had invaded his own body.
It had been a truly hair's-breadth escape.
Had the Blood Poison Pearl shattered even a touch sooner, not all the poison could have been cleared from her.
Exhausted from the fierce internal battle, Dang Ji-yeon lost consciousness right there in cross-legged pose.
Undeterred, Ha Mu-baek continued probing her internals.
He had drawn every last wisp of poison into himself; not a drop lingered in Dang Ji-yeon.
Yet the grueling fight had left her meridians and fine vessels frail beyond measure.
While warring against the poison within himself.
He circulated internal energy to mend not only her meridians but her fine vessels as well.
The warm sensation suffusing her body roused Dang Ji-yeon to awareness.
By the time the poison had vanished utterly from her, and her meridians had mended somewhat.
Ha Mu-baek released her wrist.
Still circulating the Myriad Streams Returning Origin Art, Dang Ji-yeon then opened her eyes.
She recalled the sensation from when Ha Mu-baek let go of her wrist.
A profound reluctance.
Was it the warm presence departing? Or Ha Mu-baek's hand pulling away?
An indistinct sense of loss, impossible to pinpoint.
That thought made Dang Ji-yeon startle, her face flushing red.
Regaining her wits, she sought Ha Mu-baek to offer thanks.
"Aaah..."
A soft gasp escaped her.
She had spotted Ha Mu-baek—his entire body turned pitch black.
The poison qi leaking from her body.
No matter how she strained to expel it, even combined with her grandfather's energy, it refused to yield.
Yet it had moved so readily because...
A new home awaited it.
Ha Mu-baek.
He had absorbed her poison through Suction Binding.
"H-how..."
Tears misted Dang Ji-yeon's eyes.
To save her, taking in such an immense poison himself.
No one would dare attempt it.
She fidgeted in distress, but there was nothing she could do.
Her grandfather too was deep in meditation, purging his remaining poison.
All Dang Ji-yeon could manage was to watch, praying fervently.
Ha Mu-baek's plight was not so grave as it appeared from without.
True, he was poisoned by the Ten Thousand Years Poison Spirit's toxin.
But he waged war against it using internal energy, fire qi, and ice qi.
Within Ha Mu-baek's meridians, the four energies tangled, vying to claim territory.
Drip.
Black blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Still, his internals had not reached a critical state.
Rather than clash head-on, he opted to observe the poison's movements.
Thus had the poisoning deepened, drawing even blood.
It remained endurable for now.
His body, impervious to myriad poisons, resisted stoutly.
Yet the poison qi pierced that bulwark, steadily expanding its hold.
He summoned internal energy.
Shielding his sturdy meridians even more firmly.
Then he ignited fire qi.
Flames surged through his meridians.
The poison resisted the blaze.
As difficult as ever.
Just like in the South Barbarian cavern.
The poison endured without burning away, holding firm.
Stronger fire qi would incinerate it.
But this intensity marked the limit his meridians could withstand.
Fire qi and poison qi locked in a tense ebb and flow.
As if he had foreseen it, Ha Mu-baek observed the clash.
Then, from the opposite flank, he unleashed ice qi to freeze the poison.
It resisted the frost as well.
Yet already entangled with fire qi.
Portions began to freeze piecemeal.
Its power started to wane.
Resistance to the fire weakened in turn, portions igniting bit by bit.
Still, it did not vanish entirely.
Instead, its forces dwindled relentlessly.
Fire qi at one end, ice qi at the other.
Under the two-pronged assault, the poison shrank and shrank.
The instant it was backed into a corner.
Fire, ice, and poison mingled chaotically.
Even the safeguarding internal energy swirled into the fray.
'Is this the end?'
Ha Mu-baek pondered as he observed his internals.
There was a way to eradicate the poison completely.
Unite internal energy, fire qi, and ice qi.
And detonate them.
However.
Even Ha Mu-baek's meridians could not survive such force.
His own body failing against his own power.
Thus, annihilation within was impossible.
'Embrace it.'
So he resolved.
Circulating the Infinite Formless Heart Method and Radiant Heaven Force.
Two internal arts, their paths divergent from the poison qi's.
Could he truly accommodate it?
Doubts flickered.
But a method conceived demands action—that was Ha Mu-baek.
The four energies whirled in a tangle, the poison qi gradually drawn toward his dantian.
No—seemingly absorbed, only to rebound, sucked into the inner core formed by fire and ice.
More precisely, imprisoned.
At the swirling center where the two energies chased tails.
The poison was confined.
Internal energy then crept in, enveloping it smoothly.
Fused, the four truly formed something akin to an inner core.
Within, the poison melted—ever so gradually, infinitesimal amounts seeping into Ha Mu-baek's dantian.
Dantian and inner core.
Linked, they circulated energy without cease.
By then.
Ha Mu-baek's complexion had returned fully to normal.
Ha Mu-baek opened his eyes.
That instant.
"Aah... Th-thank goodness..."
Dang Ji-yeon sighed in relief and collapsed limply.
Dang Ja-cheong gazed at Ha Mu-baek, a smile lighting his face.