The Culprit
I stared at Muyoung in disbelief.
What the hell? Why is he acting like this?
The moment I began gathering my inner energy, Muyoung stepped forward first. In one fluid motion, he seized the guard by the throat and pinned him down. He even kept his sword drawn in his other hand.
“Ugh… What is the meaning of this?”
“Apologize for the disrespect you have shown the young master. Moreover, the mistress is his biological mother. By what right do you dare forbid the young master from entering?”
I was genuinely shocked by the scene.
Was his loyalty this fierce?
In my previous life, Muyoung had never openly interfered with my actions. Though he occasionally shot me glances full of disdain or sarcasm, he had never acted so directly. Given that, there should have been no reason for him to display such devotion toward me…
Had I been mistaken about him all this time?
“What should I do with him, young master?”
Muyoung asked, pressing his blade against the guard’s neck.
I let out a small sigh and shook my head.
“He is my mother’s guard. Speak to him in a way he can understand.”
“Yes, young master.”
Muyoung glared at the man as if to confirm he had been understood, then shoved him backward. As I took the lead toward the annex, Muyoung quickly fell in behind me.
Of course, other guards appeared to block our path, but Muyoung subdued them with overwhelming force just as he had before.
The Seungryongdae. As expected.
It was incredibly reassuring.
The members of the Seungryongdae were at minimum first-rate martial artists. And Muyoung, despite his young age, had already reached the extreme level of first-rate. He was a master among masters. My mother’s guards were undoubtedly skilled, but they were no match for Muyoung.
Thanks to him, I was able to enter the annex without any further trouble.
“Hngh…!”
The moment I stepped into the annex corridor, I heard my mother’s pained groan.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
My heart pounded violently.
But that wasn’t all.
What is this?
The instant I entered the hallway, a horribly familiar energy washed over me. My expression hardened on its own.
The poison qi is thick.
It had left a trail of incredibly potent poison qi. Thanks to the extremely heightened senses I had gained since my regression, I was able to detect it immediately.
I rushed straight into the room where my mother lay.
Bang!
The scene that greeted me as I threw the door open was my mother lying in bed, drenched in cold sweat and writhing in agony, while the servants stood around helplessly.
“……”
I hurried to her side and took her wrist. I carefully felt her pulse.
The poison qi… has grown much stronger. In just three days.
Her breathing was irregular. Beneath her labored gasps, her heartbeat was frighteningly weak. It felt as though it might stop at any moment.
“Ugh… M-my son…”
My mother forced her hazy eyes open and gave me a clumsy smile. She was trying to smile so I wouldn’t worry.
I had no choice but to relax my expression and smile back at her.
“Please rest for a moment, Mother.”
I gently pressed her sleep point to put her to sleep. Even then, she twitched intermittently from the pain. The sight was heartbreaking.
“What happened here?”
I asked the servants.
One of them stepped forward. She was a close attendant who often attended to my mother—a woman I had seen many times.
“S-she takes the Heavy Relief Decoction once in a while and this happens. We thought it wasn’t anything serious…”
“Heavy Relief Decoction?”
It was a name I had never heard before. The feeling it gave me was terrible.
“It is the medicine the mistress takes. After she began drinking it, her condition improved greatly.”
“Improved? How?”
“She became able to move around as usual. She does have occasional seizures like this, but the head of Insujeon said her overall condition has improved significantly.”
Insujeon’s head, Heo Su-gyeong?
I had never heard anything like this when I received the medicinal ingredients earlier.
“Bring me the Heavy Relief Decoction.”
“P-pardon? Why would you…”
“Bring it.”
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the servant bowed deeply and hurried out. She soon returned with a medicine bowl.
“This is the Heavy Relief Decoction?”
“Yes, young master.”
I lifted the bowl and dipped the tip of my tongue into it.
Hmm?
It didn’t taste particularly strong. If anything, it was closer to tea than medicine. Other than a slight astringency on the tongue, there was nothing distinctive about it.
“There’s no way this could be medicine—”
The moment those words left my mouth, a memory from my previous life suddenly surfaced.
This… could it be…?
If my suspicion was correct, this was a serious problem. I knew the bastard who poisoned people in exactly this manner.
“Muyoung.”
“Yes, young master.”
Muyoung approached with his hand already resting on the hilt of his sword. The servants turned deathly pale and dropped to their knees in terror.
“Take out the medicinal ingredients I brought.”
“Here they are, young master.”
Muyoung immediately handed them over. I took the herbs I had torn apart at Insujeon earlier and dropped them into the Heavy Relief Decoction. Then I gently infused it with my energy to warm the liquid slightly.
As the dried herbs absorbed the moisture, they began to release their properties into the decoction. Ideally, I would have decocted them properly and mixed them, but there was no time for that.
About fifteen minutes later—
I flinched.
“…!”
I pulled my hand away from the bowl the moment I sensed it.
It’s poison qi.
The instant the herbs mixed with the decoction, poison qi rose from the bowl. It was the exact same type I had sensed from my mother.
“Hah. So this was it.”
I could no longer contain the rage boiling inside me and let out a burst of manic laughter.
If I hadn’t come here today… I never would have known.
Muyoung must have noticed something was wrong as well. He leaned in to smell the decoction and immediately frowned.
“Young master… this is poison.”
“Yes. It is poison.”
I rose slowly to my feet and swept my gaze across the servants.
“Who is responsible?”
Silence.
It was deathly quiet.
“Who brought this Heavy Relief Decoction? Was it you? Or was it the head of Insujeon?”
No one answered. They merely glanced at each other, trembling.
Sring!
Muyoung, unable to hold back any longer, deliberately drew his sword with a loud ring. Only then did the servants turn bone-white and begin begging desperately.
“Aigoo, young master! Please spare us! We didn’t know it was poison! The mistress obtained this Heavy Relief Decoction herself…”
“My mother obtained it herself? From whom? When?”
“I-it was quite a while ago, so I don’t remember the exact date… but I do know who gave it to her. Yes!”
I took a deep breath, forcing down the fury raging in my chest.
“Speak. Who did my mother receive this decoction from?”
“W-well… I believe it was from the Cheonjung Merchant Group… but I’m not entirely certain…”
“Cheonjung Merchant Group?”
What was that?
I had never heard of such a group. I remembered every merchant organization connected to the family.
One of the servants must have read my confusion. She quickly spoke up.
“I heard it was a merchant group that had a contract with the mistress’s family. I saw them once when I accompanied her to the Shanxi Yu Family.”
“Ah. The Shanxi Yu Family.”
It was my mother, Yu Ha-rin’s, natal family. The Shanxi Yu Family was a fairly well-known clan in Shanxi.
I hadn’t considered that.
Yes. Rather than clumsily targeting the powerful Ju Family directly, it would be far easier to exploit the relatively weaker Yu Family’s vulnerabilities. No matter how mighty the Ju Family was, its influence did not reach all the way to distant Shanxi.
“You. Carry this and follow me.”
I pointed at the servant who had just explained everything to me. She bowed and carefully picked up the medicine bowl.
With the servant and Muyoung following behind, I headed straight for Insujeon.
Because I had returned so soon, Heo Su-gyeong had no choice but to stop what she was doing and rush out to meet me.
“Head of Insujeon, could you take a look at this?”
“What is… Hup. This is…?”
Heo Su-gyeong took the bowl without thinking and was about to smell it when she immediately realized something was wrong. Her expression stiffened. Even without smelling it, the poison qi was so obvious that she understood at once how serious the situation had become.
“Please wait a moment, young master.”
Her trembling stopped. True to her position as head of Insujeon, she quickly regained her composure and went back inside. I naturally followed her.
After a long examination using acupuncture needles and various other medicines, Heo Su-gyeong approached me with a grave expression.
“Have you identified it?”
She nodded at my question.
“Roughly, yes. But I can’t be certain.”
After a moment of hesitation, she asked me,
“Young master, I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did the mistress consume this?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
I glanced at the servant who was still trembling behind me. Muyoung noticed and pushed her forward.
“I-it’s already been well over three months. She drank it mixed with the Heavy Relief Decoction every three or four days.”
“Three months… Damn it.”
I ground my teeth. She had been taking this poisoned decoction for three months.
“Young master, this is no ordinary matter.”
Heo Su-gyeong’s face hardened as she continued.
“This is not a poison formula that could be conceived through ordinary knowledge. This was done by someone who has studied poisonous herbs at an expert level.”
“Hah. Is that so?”
I nodded. Of course it was. The one targeting my mother was no ordinary bastard.
It couldn’t have been the Tang Family, so the culprit must be the Demonic Cult.
Those who had devised the most effective way to break my mother and weaken the family’s power. It had to be the Demonic Cult.
Moreover, if we were talking about a legendary figure within the cult when it came to poison… there was only one.
One of the Twelve Demon Emperors—Blood Hand Poison Emperor. It’s him.
It was clearly his handiwork. If it wasn’t that madman obsessed with poison, no one in the Ju Family would have failed to notice the poisoning of the mistress.
That said, Heo Su-gyeong could not be completely cleared of suspicion either.
“Can you detoxify it?”
At my question, Heo Su-gyeong frowned deeply in thought. After a while, she gave a small nod.
“I’m not confident… Perhaps it would be better to ask the Tang Family…”
Hearing her uncertain tone, I spoke to her in a low, stern voice.
“You must do it. I am still suspecting you as the culprit.”
“Y-yes…?”
“If you don’t want to be suspected, find a way. Desperately.”
If she didn’t want to die, she had to create an antidote and clear herself of suspicion.
“Also, this poison has hallucinatory effects. It is highly addictive…”
“Addictive?”
“It is essentially… a narcotic.”
“……”
A narcotic. Damn it. That changed everything.
Narcotics had terrifying addictive properties. They dragged their victims straight to hell. In some ways, they were even more vicious than ordinary poisons.
“Even after detoxification, there may be complications. Especially since the mistress’s body is already so weak…”
“My mother is a strong woman. She will overcome this.”
I believed in her. I knew she would never kneel to something as trivial as a narcotic.
“Alright. I will try. No—I will definitely make it. I will find a way no matter what.”
She clenched her fists, showing her determination.
I gave her one final instruction.
“Everything must be done in complete secrecy.”
“Secrecy? All of this?”
“The culprit might try to flee. Please proceed that way.”
Heo Su-gyeong let out a deep sigh and nodded.
“Understood. I will follow your orders, young master.”
“Good.”
Yes. This was enough for now.
Now it was time for me to do what I could for my mother.
“It seems I must go.”
“Yes, young master.”
Muyoung nodded as though it were obvious.
“To the Shanxi Yu Family.”
It was time to visit my mother’s family after a long while.