Chapter 366
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 366
Chapter Title: It's a Mechanism
"Today's training ends here."
Han Seol-bing said that and turned to leave the grand training ground.
It was because of the items stored in her quarters.
They were precious things.
Just in case, she wanted to stay near her quarters as much as possible.
"What on earth could it be?"
Instructor Ji Gun-wi was puzzled, as this was completely out of character for her.
He didn't ask anything, but he couldn't help feeling curious.
She hadn't returned even after training ended.
It didn't seem like a trivial matter.
Before he knew it, he was near the quarters as he walked.
"Come to think of it..."
He hadn't seen the old sweeper lately.
The old man who swept everywhere in the Dragon Training Pavilion had become something of a symbol there.
He was everywhere, appearing at any time.
"Is something wrong?"
Even Ha Mu-baek was gone.
Wi Ji-gun was nowhere to be seen either.
Her intuition told her it wasn't good news.
Han Seol-bing entered her room.
There were boxes stacked in one corner of the quarters.
Sent from the Sichuan Tang Clan to Ha Mu-baek.
Blood Poison Pills.
Not long after Ha Mu-baek left, the Sichuan Tang Clan had delivered them directly to her.
Hundreds of Blood Poison Pills were neatly packed in several boxes.
What kind of magic had that guy worked?
To think the Tang Clan would send them so quickly.
Since Ha Mu-baek had earned them, she was just keeping them in her room for now.
"Nothing bad happened to that guy, right?"
She muttered, staring at the boxes of Blood Poison Pills.
A hundred Blood Poison Pills.
The Tang Clan wouldn't have given them lightly.
Thud. Thud.
The footsteps of three people echoed off the tunnel walls.
A short walk from the entrance led to a fairly large cave.
And from there, several tunnels branched off.
They entered the leftmost one first.
They walked to the end, but found nothing.
Wondering if there might be hidden mechanisms, they searched every inch.
But there was nothing.
In the end, they returned to the start.
Ha Mu-baek swept his gaze over the remaining nine tunnels.
Then he expanded his senses.
There were no signs of life in any of them.
Not even corpses.
"Nothing here."
Ha Mu-baek said.
"Could it be hidden by a mechanism?"
Dang Ji-yeon's suggestion made sense.
To check for mechanisms, even Ha Mu-baek had to infuse his internal energy and inspect with the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
They moved to the second and third tunnels, but the results were the same.
Ha Mu-baek checked with internal energy and the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye, but still nothing.
Now, at the tenth tunnel.
This was the last one.
"There must be something here, right?"
Considerable time had already passed.
Exhaustion had replaced the excitement and anticipation on Dang Ji-yeon's face.
"Hmm. You'd think so. But looking at the entrance, it doesn't seem like the work of ordinary hands."
The nine tunnels they'd passed were all in their natural state.
Twisting and narrow, widening and narrowing, with water flowing in places.
Even reaching the ends had been tiring enough.
Of course, it was nothing to Ha Mu-baek.
They entered the tenth tunnel.
This one was different.
It was still a natural cave tunnel, but there were clear signs of human intervention here and there.
"If we'd gone to the farthest one first..."
Dang Ji-yeon muttered in frustration upon spotting the traces.
Regret that good nine wasted trips could have been avoided with a better initial choice.
They followed the tunnel.
Even at the end, it was just a dead end.
"W-what is this?"
Dang Ji-yeon stared at the blocked wall in disbelief.
From the traces at the initial entrance.
To the marks in this tunnel.
Human hands had clearly been at work.
And not just any—those of someone incredibly powerful.
Yet nothing?
Maybe to toy with anyone who found and entered?
Absurd.
"Hmm."
Dang Ja-cheong let out a groan of bewilderment.
Ha Mu-baek scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes.
It was a natural cave dead end.
But something felt off.
That's why Ha Mu-baek reached out toward the dead-end wall and infused his internal energy.
His eyes gleamed.
Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
He spread his energy vision to probe the area.
This time was different.
The reaction differed from the previous nine, and so did what he saw.
The flow of energy showed this wasn't just a natural cave end.
And in one spot.
There was resistance to the energy he infused.
He focused there.
Checking for a specific mechanism.
"Is something there?"
Dang Ja-cheong asked at Ha Mu-baek's action.
"It's a mechanism."
Dang Ji-yeon's face lit up as if she might cheer any second.
They'd finally found it.
The point resisting Ha Mu-baek's energy.
When he tried pushing more behind it, the resistance grew fiercer.
He tried forcing through.
But the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye revealed the mechanism deep inside twitching to collapse.
Ha Mu-baek immediately withdrew his energy.
"It seems to react to a specific energy."
The two fixed their eyes on Ha Mu-baek.
"When I increased the energy just now, this place started to collapse."
They flinched.
Something was hidden.
But reaching for it could cost their lives.
The tunnel was deep.
If it collapsed at once, they'd all be buried.
Ha Mu-baek carefully infused energy again, testing reactions.
No energy worked.
It just kept resisting.
Forcing it seemed ready to bring the place down immediately.
"Tricky."
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
No need to risk it recklessly.
Dang Ji-yeon's shoulders slumped in disappointment.
Her gaze drifted to the ground.
Then Ha Mu-baek's toes caught her eye.
And at the tip, a faint carving like a pattern.
Worn by time, so faint it wouldn't register as a pattern at a glance.
It looked like natural erosion from limestone dissolved in water.
Her keen observation caught it.
"Th-that... this is...?"
As Dang Ji-yeon pointed at Ha Mu-baek's toe, their eyes followed.
"What's wrong, Ji-yeon?"
"This here. Doesn't it look like some kind of pattern?"
Dang Ji-yeon's question.
Ha Mu-baek and Dang Ja-cheong examined it closely.
"Isn't it just dissolved by water? This rock type dissolves in water."
At Dang Ja-cheong's words, Dang Ji-yeon traced the mark with her finger.
Infusing internal energy at her fingertip, a clear image emerged over the faint trace.
"Like this."
The pattern Dang Ji-yeon drew.
Indeed.
Ignoring the surrounding water erosion, it matched that shape.
Dang Ji-yeon stared at the pattern she'd drawn.
"I... I think I've seen this before."
Dang Ji-yeon recalled the pattern from her memory.
The gathering of Sichuan sects.
That's when she'd seen it.
Amid flags of various sects fluttering.
A small flag waving deep in one sect's area.
She'd seen it there.
"It's the pattern hung at the Heavenly Poison Valley Lord's residence during the gathering."
"Huh?"
Dang Ja-cheong's eyes widened at her words.
It wasn't in his memory.
It didn't match the Heavenly Poison Valley's emblem at all.
Come to think of it, at the periodic gatherings, he'd never visited the Valley Lord's residence.
He'd only met people at the grand banquet hall prepared for the event.
So it wasn't in Dang Ja-cheong's memory.
Curious Dang Ji-yeon had roamed everywhere during gatherings.
That's how she'd seen it.
Dang Ji-yeon shrugged.
"I just passed by, so I don't know the details, but I saw the Valley Lord come out from there."
Ha Mu-baek recalled the layout of Heavenly Poison Valley.
But no such pattern anywhere.
Still.
With Dang Ji-yeon's confident claim.
"Then it's poison energy?"
He asked Dang Ja-cheong with conviction.
"Heavenly Poison Valley, so probably. And one only the Valley Lord possesses."
"The Famous Poison Art, then."
Dang Ja-cheong nodded.
And with that, difficulty arose.
It meant only the Heavenly Poison Valley Lord could open it.
Moreover, it was an arrangement left by the valley's ancestors, so outsiders like them intruding wasn't right.
"Heavenly Poison Valley's, huh..."
Ha Mu-baek murmured softly.
Yet no one seemed to know about it.
Not even Myo Gu-eung, the rightful heir.
He only knew of the secret escape route, clueless about this place.
"They don't even seem aware it exists."
At Ha Mu-baek's words, Dang Ji-yeon nodded slightly.
Dang Ji-yeon looked reluctant to leave empty-handed.
"Even so, barging into a place with an owner isn't righteous. Tell the Valley Lord about this place."
Dang Ja-cheong spoke with a clear, unyielding face, no lingering attachment after identifying the owner.
Ha Mu-baek pondered for a moment.
Recalling events at Heavenly Poison Valley.
The beginning.
Arriving at Heavenly Poison Valley, his conversation with Yeo Hong-gi.
Dang Ja-cheong's recount of past secrets then.
Yeo Hong-gi's flustered reaction.
And the following explanation.
Yeo Hong-gi not answering his question about revenge.
"Even the Famous Poison Art... the Valley Lord probably can't open it. Might even collapse it."
Dang Ja-cheong shot a questioning glance at Ha Mu-baek's words.
"Didn't you hear it too, Elder? The story behind the Famous Poison Art. The two Famous Poison Arts."
"Ah."
Dang Ja-cheong let out a low exclamation at the reminder.
Right.
The previous and current Valley Lords hadn't fully inherited all the succession arts as Valley Lords.
If.
The Manhwang Talbaek Famous Poison Art that Yeo Hong-gi mentioned was the key here.
Then even Yeo Hong-gi couldn't open it.
He lacked the key.
"Then no one can open it. Tsk."
Dang Ja-cheong clicked his tongue.
But Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"Myo Gu-eung. He could."
"But he's..."
Dang Ja-cheong started to say he was surely dead, but Ha Mu-baek cut in.
"No body confirmed."
"Even so, falling into those rapids below..."
Ha Mu-baek shook his head again.
"Can't be sure without a body."
He'd experienced such cases in the great martial war.
Ha Mu-baek didn't assume Myo Gu-eung was dead.
He weighted the possibility he was alive.
Habit of assuming the worst against enemies.
"Then..."
Dang Ja-cheong looked at Ha Mu-baek with complicated eyes.
"Just in case, a one-in-a-million chance he returns alive and finds this... we must check first."
Ha Mu-baek stated firmly.
Dang Ja-cheong had no retort.
Ha Mu-baek's reasoning was sound.
Myo Gu-eung, who'd already caused disaster in the southern borders with horrific poison.
Couldn't let him gain power from here.
Dang Ja-cheong thought him dead, but had no proof.
"Even so, we can't open it either? Are you thinking of collapsing it so he can't either?"
If it was Ha Mu-baek.
After Dang Ja-cheong and Dang Ji-yeon escaped first, he alone might collapse it and escape unharmed.
"If we can't open it, that's what we'll do."
Ha Mu-baek answered matter-of-factly.
"But first, one last try."
The poison energy he'd absorbed into himself using suction to treat Dang Ji-yeon's poisoning.
It was definitely Myo Gu-eung's.
The poison from the Manhwang Talbaek Famous Poison Art, perfected by absorbing the Ten-Thousand-Year Poison Crystal.
'This might work...'
Circulation of energy in his dantian and inner core.
That poison still lingered there.
Being gradually absorbed into his dantian, enhancing his Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity Body.
But Ha Mu-baek could wield it.
Thus.
He moved a portion of the poison cycling between dantian and core to his fingertip.
And at that spot.
He pushed in a tiny amount of poison energy.
That instant.
Rumble rumble rumble.
The cave began to vibrate slowly.
"Th-this!"
"Ah, ah?"
Startled Dang Ja-cheong and Dang Ji-yeon.
Ha Mu-baek braced the cave wall with his left hand, infusing energy while watching the movement with Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
Not collapsing.
Like a long-sealed door trying to open.
But only vibrations.
No further movement.
Ha Mu-baek pushed more poison energy.
Then.
Groan groan groan.
Something began to shift slightly.
'The amount's the issue.'
The mechanism reacted but didn't operate properly.
The quantity of Famous Poison Art energy mattered too.
Ha Mu-baek confirmed that.
Then kept pushing poison energy.
Koo koo.
Gee gee ging.
Groooan.
The vibrations eased as sounds of mechanisms activating faintly echoed.
Finally.
Koo koo. Koo koo. Boom.
Grooooaaan.
The wall where Ha Mu-baek infused energy groaned and shifted.
What seemed a solid cave wall detached with effort and opened.
Not a wall—a door.
The closed seam had originally been a clear door gap.
But over ages.
Water flow eroded it, making it seem one seamless wall, like natural cave.
The door opened, revealing the interior to their eyes.