Chapter 23 Poison Forest 5

Chapter 23: Poison Forest 5

Bisa Yeong ultimately couldn’t bring himself to kill the old man.

No, he didn’t kill him.

He only snapped angrily at the old man who kept telling him to kill himself.

“If I kill you now! Are you telling me to create more scum like me?! Or should Dakam and those kids die with you too?!”

Unable to answer, the old man stood silent as Biseoyoung spat out the words.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Repay it as much as you can while you’re alive.”

“Repay it while you’re alive?”

Then, Biseyang turned to me and said to him.

“I’m too dumb to understand, but my smart friend seems to need your wisdom. He says he needs information to storm the Blood Sect later. So spill everything you know. Everything about the Blood Sect, about herbs, about poisonous plants—everything!”

The old man looked at him with a deep gaze and asked.

“…Is that really going to work?”

“Dammit! Is it enough?! Just do it! Stop rubbing it in! Ugh! Can’t even swear in front of the kids.”

He’d probably already cursed enough, but he decided not to point it out.

We patted his shoulder warmly.

Throughout my past and present lives, except for when I died behind someone else, today’s Biseaeng seemed the most impressive.

Old Seok Gyeong-dal thought for a moment, then said to Dakam.

“Go fetch what you prepared last time.”

To everyone’s astonishment, Dakam brought back a Danhwan that emitted an incredibly deep fragrance.

The old man said.

“It may not be a grand pill, but it should be a decent one. It’s no excuse for an apology, so just think you found it on the road.”

Startled, Biseyeong shouted.

“Wh-wh-what?! You think giving me this kind of thing will make me feel better?! I-I’m not that kind of person?!”

But seeing him take it blankly, he seemed somewhat appeased already.

We smiled faintly and congratulated him.

“You were grumbling about never having tasted a potion before, but this worked out well. Your wish came true, didn’t it?”

“Exactly. To be on par with a Summoning Orb? Seriously, congratulations.”

“Now Sa-young can really start growing. I’ll push you even harder, so brace yourself.”

But Biseyoung, who had been staring at it blankly, held it out to us and said.

“This… Let’s share it.”

When we widened our eyes in utter surprise at the unexpected suggestion, he hastily explained.

“Well, I mean no offense. Anyway, didn’t you say that if the external energy exceeds five points, it leads to internal energy backlash? I don’t want that to happen, and Jin needs internal energy right now. Plus, if Squad Leader and Young Lady Cheong get stronger, they’ll be able to protect me better! That’s what I meant. So…”

He rattled off excuses, but we knew exactly what he was thinking.

Today, the little guy seemed determined to be cool.

Team Leader Seolpung smiled warmly and said.

“Very well. For your sake, I shall strive to become stronger. However, I have no need for elixirs now. I’ve reached the limit of eighty years of cultivation. Without enlightenment, I cannot advance further anyway.”

Miss Qingyan also smiled and replied.

“I’m in the same situation. Even if I took a spiritual elixir now, I couldn’t build any more internal energy anyway, so I’ll just accept your kind offer.”

For ordinary people, the limit to cultivating inner strength was sixty years, one full cycle of the Chinese zodiac. No matter how many elixirs one consumed like daily meals, the vessel was full beyond that point, and no more inner strength could be accumulated.

However, if one attained enlightenment at that point—that is, if one surpassed the peak barrier—the vessel for inner strength would expand enough to accumulate up to seventy years.

Gaining further enlightenment there allowed for eighty years. Those who steadily gained enlightenment in this way, finally surpassing the hundred-year barrier of inner strength, were called the supreme masters.

Had there been no such limit to the vessel, all the wealthy who could hoard elixirs would have become the martial world’s supreme masters. Thus, it could be said to be nature’s fair providence in its own way.

What they were saying was that Captain Seolpung and Young Lady Cheongyeon were now stuck at that limit, unable to accumulate any more internal energy.

Captain Seolpung was likely blocked by the eighty-year barrier, while Young Master Cheongyeon was likely blocked by the ultimate barrier, the one-cycle limit.

Old Seok Gyeong-dal, who had been listening to our conversation with an incredulous expression, spoke up.

“In all my years, I’ve seen plenty of fights over elixirs, but never once have I witnessed such a scene of mutual concession. What kind of people are you, anyway?”

At his words, we exchanged glances.

He was right.

Summoning pellets are treasures that cannot be obtained without fate, even for a fortune. Where would you find martial artists willing to share them with others? And even if they couldn’t consume them immediately, who would refuse an elixir?

Except for the people standing before me now.

The warm feeling emanating from each other was so comforting it was almost overwhelming.

The old man waved his hand impatiently and spoke again.

“My entire life is about to become meaningless. Stop tormenting this old man and just eat it already. And you needn’t worry about demonic possession either.”

“…Huh? You say there’s no need to worry about demonic possession?”

The first to grasp the meaning of his words were me and Miss Cheongyeon.

Startled, we looked at each other.

Hadn’t we always wondered?

Why the Blood Cultists, who build their inner strength through blood absorption, never fall victim to demonic possession…

Swallowing hard, I asked.

“Is there some secret technique?”

He answered with a meaningful smile.

“You are now about to learn one of the Blood Sect’s greatest secrets.”

With that, he held out a pouch containing black pills.

“These are poison pills.”

“Poison pills?”

“Yes, a poison pill containing a very weak toxin.”

His explanation continued as follows.

He said that Blood Cult practitioners, who had long absorbed others’ vital energy to build their internal power, discovered that regularly ingesting a weak poison prevented them from falling into demonic possession.

“To draw an analogy, demonic possession occurs when impure internal energy collides with pure internal energy. But when an external enemy arises, perhaps they no longer clash?”

It was nothing short of jaw-dropping.

“But… how could this have remained completely unknown until now?”

He smiled and replied.

“Didn’t I mention it? It’s one of the Blood Sect’s greatest secrets. Besides, even if someone possessing the poison seal died and it was taken, it’s just a poison seal, isn’t it? What’s so special about a Blood Sect disciple having a poison seal?”

“Huh.”

The reason why, despite historically killing countless Blood Demons and persecuting Blood Cultists, they still couldn’t be eradicated was the temptation that becoming a Blood Cultist allowed one to easily accumulate inner strength.

They could easily accumulate internal energy within a single cycle of the Chinese zodiac, quickly becoming top-tier masters. This made it easy for the number of peak masters to increase.

Of course, precisely because they accumulated internal energy so easily, achieving greater enlightenment and further development became more difficult. Yet, even that level was sufficient to place them among the ranks of the strong in the martial world.

But today, we had discovered that secret.

Suddenly, Miss Qingyan spoke up.

“Since we’re on the subject, why don’t both of you take the elixir now? After all, Master Sunwoo has a duel waiting for him as soon as he returns, right?”

Zhao Zhang agreed.

“I agree. Now that we’ve found the method, there’s no need to hesitate.”

I thought that made sense too.

So, Bi Sayeong and I immediately consumed the elixir and began our qigong practice.

Old Seok Gyeong-dal, Jo Jang, and Qingyan Xiao all watched us with pleased expressions.

At that moment, Dakam, who had been watching nearby, suddenly asked his younger brothers.

“Where’s Big Brother Raccoon?”

“Brother Raccoon went out looking for you at dawn because you didn’t come in, didn’t he?”

“What? He didn’t go far, did he?”

***

At the same time, near Dokrim.

Waaah!

“Kyaaaah!”

With the sound of leather bursting, a massive black panther was flung back, letting out a pitiful scream.

It was the same black panther that had fought Seolpung earlier.

True to its feline nature, the black panther corrected its posture mid-air and landed on the ground, but it couldn’t stop the massive man from crashing down on top of it.

Pwooong!

“Kyaaaang!”

The man’s single blow struck the black panther squarely on the back of the head. With a single, piercing cry, it collapsed instantly.

It did not rise again.

The men who had been watching the fight in hushed silence nearby lit up with excitement and began to cheer.

“Ooooh! As expected of the Blood Demon General! To dispatch such an extraordinary fiend in one fell swoop!”

“Of course! How could such a lowly creature even hope to stand against a Demon General who served the Blood Demon Lord and distinguished himself in the last holy war?!”

Ignoring his subordinates’ admiration, Blood Demon General Jigwangok commanded them.

“Since you didn’t kill it, take that one too. A venomous black tiger? What a curious creature. The Blood Demon Lord might take an interest.”

“Yes! Understood!”

As several subordinates tightly bound and captured the black tiger, one slick-looking subordinate spoke to Jigwangok in a voice laced with flattery.

“Your servant cannot fathom why His Excellency would personally trouble himself with such trivial matters as collecting venomous creatures. It’s like using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken—this time, even His Excellency Blood Demon seems to have gone a bit too far.”

Ji Guang-ok’s fierce gaze turned toward him.

“You dare question the Blood Demon’s judgment now?”

The slick subordinate’s face instantly drained of color under that predatory glare.

“Ah, no! How could I… I merely feared it might be inconvenient for His Excellency the Demon Lord to make the journey here personally…!”

Thud!

The subordinate couldn’t even finish his sentence.

Ji Gwang-ok’s thick hand swung down with a simple motion, crushing his skull like a watermelon.

Watching the subordinate’s headless body collapse lifelessly, Jigwangok spoke with an expressionless face.

“Disciples who do not obey the Blood Demon Lord are unnecessary to the sect.”

Witnessing their comrade’s all-too-simple death, the subordinates swallowed hard and hurriedly finished capturing the leopard.

Ji Gwang-ok, the Blood Demon Army who had served as the hunting dog for the Blood Demon Lord Jeon Moo-kwang since the last Blood War, truly lived up to his reputation.

His ruthlessness, his ferocity.

They had come to the Poison Forest under orders to collect a deadly venom from the Blood Demon.

Originally, the group consisted of one at the peak of their prime and seven top-tier first-class members. This time, Ji Guangyu, the Blood Demon Army’s Blood-Seeking Demon, had come along as their supervisor.

Even among the Blood Cultists, his reputation for being rigid and ferocious was notorious, making it impossible for them not to feel tense at his joining.

Moreover, they had only just arrived in the Poison Forest, and already three had died.

Two had indeed been killed by Heukpyo, but while those two fell to Heukpyo, Jigwangok had merely watched with an amused expression. In effect, he had stood by and allowed his subordinates’ deaths.

Moreover, he had just personally killed the only peak-level expert among them.

This was a moment when they could feel, deep in their bones, how he viewed them.

Now, all the Blood Sect members were consumed by the single desire to extract the poison as quickly as possible and escape him.

Just then, one of the scouts who had gone out returned, having captured something. It was a dark-skinned Miao boy.

“Lord Ma Jun! We captured a Miao child nearby! Judging by his youth, there must be a Miao hideout in this area! Moreover, this brat was carrying a pouch that wards off evil spirits!”

At that, Jigwangok’s predatory eyes turned toward the child.

The child, unable to move after being struck, was crying and screaming.

“No! This is where I live alone! There’s no hiding place here! You monsters!”

Jigwang-ok muttered, sounding intrigued.

“A hiding place near the poison forest. Considering how sensitive the living are to the poison scent, that makes sense. And you even have a scent pouch to chase them away.”

Ji Gwang-ok grabbed the Miao child by the throat and lifted him up before his eyes.

The child was now utterly petrified with fear.

Meeting the child’s gaze, Jigwangok opened his mouth in a sinister voice.

“Listen to me.”

His eyes, as he spoke, emitted an eerie green glow.

The child’s gaze began to grow hazy.

Though he hadn’t mastered the blood-stealing technique that turned others into complete puppets, subduing a child who hadn’t even trained in martial arts was hardly difficult for Ji Gwang-ok, the Bloodthirsty Demon Lord.

***

Seolpung and Haecheongyeon sipped the tea Dakam had served, waiting for Seonujin and Biseoyeong to finish their qigong practice.

It had been quite a long time, but they had been so engrossed in conversation with the elderly Seok Gyeong-dal that they hadn’t noticed the passage of time.

His vast knowledge, stemming from his background as a scholar of martial arts and his study of medical arts, opened up a whole new world to the two of them.

Seolpung asked back, his expression shocked.

“So you’re saying the elixir those two just consumed was made from poison?”

“That’s… But I didn’t sense any poisonous energy at all?”

“Think carefully. Isn’t poison fundamentally something that tilts energy to one side, disrupting balance? But it’s also said that elixirs become poisonous if their energy tilts too far. So, if you combine the energy of poison to restore balance, what would that become?”

“…So you mean it’s an elixir?”

“Exactly. An elixir is fundamentally something with deeply accumulated harmonious energy. If one can harmonize the deeply accumulated energy of poison, it is no different from an elixir. This isn’t merely a theory I devised. It is said that the venerable Master Nangbin, once known as the Demon of Poison, combined poisonous energies to transform a half-paralyzed man into a new being.”

Meeting someone capable of high-level conversation after so long seemed to genuinely excite the old man Seok Gyeong-dal.

Then, their conversation turned to the matter of the Ma-in.

“So, these demons. Are you saying all these living beings appearing now are merely test subjects? For creating living beings of a higher realm?”

The old man answered Seolpung’s question with a grave expression.

“Yes. That was the main reason I left Moo-kwang’s side. What Moo-kwang wanted to create was precisely…”

That was when it happened.

One of Dakam’s younger siblings, who had been looking out the window, shouted urgently.

“Grandfather! It’s Raccoon! Raccoon is bringing strange people here!”

“What?!”

Supported by Seolpung, the old man looked out the window. His face turned pale with fear.

“That creature… Everyone, run! Quickly, escape through the back door!”

“What’s happening? Who are they that you’re saying this, Elder?”

“The Bloodthirsty Demon Lord, Ji Guang-ok! He’s possessed Raccoon and tracked us here! We must flee immediately!”

At those urgent words, Seolpung and Haecheongyeon looked at each other.

Bloodthirsty Demon Lord Ji Guang-ok.

As those fighting the Blood Sect, they absolutely could not be unaware of that name.

He was the demonic leader who had claimed the lives of countless righteous cultivators since the last Blood War, a monstrous being whose internal energy surpassed a hundred years.

Dakam shouted at him.

“Ha, Hachiman Tokuno! What about Rakun?!”

“Sadly, Rakun has been possessed by that bastard! Trying to save Rakun will get us all killed!”

The old man was right.

If that monster truly was the Bloodthirsty Demon General, Jikwangok, they had to flee immediately.

But Seolpung still watched Sunwoojin and Biseoyeong, who were still in the midst of their qi cultivation.

Those in mid-movement couldn’t move.

Therefore, it was only natural that Seolpung himself couldn’t abandon them and flee.

Seolpung addressed the old man.

“Take the children and flee. I’ll try to buy some time.”

“Such recklessness!”

Then Hae Cheong-yeon interjected.

“You’re wrong, Captain. You should have said ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.”

Not a trace of hesitation appeared on Hae Cheong-yeon’s face as he spoke.