Chapter 505
Chapter 505: The Beginning of Night (10)
I channeled every drop of strength I possessed to summon the Sunfire Monkey’s energy.
A searing blaze surged upward from my lower dantian, washing over my entire upper torso. The sudden conflagration consumed the toxic residue that lingered within my meridians.
Pop!
Heat vented violently through my pores, puffing my martial robes outward until the seams groaned. Though the venom obstructing my qi flow had been eradicated, the agony wracking my flesh only intensified. It was undoubtedly the heat-repressing toxin Dang Suje had warned me about.
As soon as I reined in the Sunfire Monkey’s energy, the counteracting poison subsided into quiescence.
‘That settles it.’
I could no longer rely on the Sunfire Monkey’s energy. From here on, my ability to endure whatever venoms Dang Suje dispersed would decide whether I could claim victory in Strongest-Decides-the-Wish.
Reading my predicament at a glance, Dang Suje offered a quiet smirk.
“Are you merely overconfident, or do you take me that lightly?”
As if seeing straight through my thoughts, he gave his wrists a languid shake before sinking into a grounded stance. In his grip rested a flying sword, his hands encased in supple green leather gloves.
Bang!
Two slabs of polished marble shattered under his heels as he launched forward like an arrow released from a drawn bow. The ferocity of his charge threatened to blast me clear out of the ring in a single breath, forcing me to activate Snow Flower.
‘What?’
In a fraction of a second, he bled off his momentum, only to redouble his assault with far greater violence.
“Urgh!”
Falling back, I scattered decoy silhouettes using Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, yet he pursued relentlessly, shattering each afterimage one by one. Still retreating, I drew upon the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Shrrrriiing!
The Scarlet Radiance Sword fanned outward like the ribs of an opening folding fan, zeroing in on Dang Suje’s lethal pressure points. Even so, his composure remained unshakeable.
“Did you truly believe I couldn’t distinguish a phantom strike from a genuine blade?”
His arrogance proved short-lived.
The Drifting Current Formless Sword flickered forward, perfectly mimicking a mirage.
Slice!
Though it merely grazed his forearm, shock registered vividly across Dang Suje’s features.
“Hup!”
Refusing to grant him a moment to recover, I unleashed successive ripples of the Drifting Current Formless Sword.
Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice!
The strikes he had dismissed as mere phantoms refused to disperse. Instead, they bit deep into his flesh, one after another.
For the first time since the duel began, Dang Suje gave ground.
“What manner of sword art is this?”
Bound by no duty to explain, I pressed the offensive, continuing to pour out the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Shrrrriiing!
A deluge of sword trajectories converged upon him. Weighing his options in a heartbeat, Dang Suje sheathed his flying sword and tore free the sash cinched around his waist. Instantly, it unfurled into a scarlet whip a full jang in length, cracking through the air with venomous snaps.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Far outclassing the whip technique previously displayed by Dang Daegwang, the weapon writhed and coiled as if endowed with its own malevolent life.
‘…Impressive.’
Snaking through the air like a storm of arrows, the whip systematically unraveled the assault of the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Spotting a sudden seam in his defense, I lunged forward, only to freeze when a sharp prickle of intuition flared within me.
Tap.
The sole of my boot brushed against an obstruction. Lowering my gaze, I caught my breath.
‘When did he have the time…?’
Concealed beneath the dust lay countless miniature iron caltrops, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye. Anticipating the difficulty of parrying the Greater Heaven Sword Art directly, he had littered his retreat route with traps to buy himself breathing room.
His battlefield calculation and attention to detail were truly formidable.
Left with no alternative, I engaged Grass-Skimming Flight to skim across the arena floor.
Tap, tap, tap.
Drifting weightlessly above the carpet of caltrops like a gust of wind, I brought the Scarlet Radiance Sword around in an arc.
[Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms]
[First Form]
[Extreme Swiftness]
Struggling to hold off the remnants of the Greater Heaven Sword Art, pure consternation surfaced across Dang Suje’s face.
Screeeech!
The piercing shriek of cleaved air trailed an instant behind the strike.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The scarlet whip in his grasp was sheared clean into three separate lengths.
“The Five-Segment Blood-Leech Whip…”
Yet the strike had failed to draw even a single drop of Dang Suje’s blood.
Without affording him room to steady his footing, I drove the Twin Heavens Sword Art toward him as he skipped backward across the stones. As dozens of blade silhouettes threatened to engulf him once more, he drew his flying sword to parry the encroaching sword qi.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Right in the middle of his desperate defense, I discharged the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand. The strike glided toward him across the empty air—utterly soundless and devoid of visible form.
Just as the force was about to crush him, Dang Suje recoiled in sheer panic and fled with everything he had.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The trailing sword qi of the Twin Heavens Sword Art he failed to deflect ripped gashes across his chest and shoulders. Even so, relief washed over his face at having escaped with only superficial wounds. He stared back toward the empty space he had just abandoned, eyes wide with horror.
“What… in heaven’s name was that?”
“Nothing of consequence.”
“What?”
“Truly, it is nothing to worry about. You will grasp it fully the moment it lands.”
“…???”
However he had divined it, his instincts had recognized the lethal menace behind the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand. Thanks to his wariness, a sliver of hope cracked open for me in this contest.
Then—
Thump.
My pulse surged violently against my ribs.
Thump. Thump.
A sharp, searing irritation crept up my legs, radiating from the tips of my toes.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
With every circulation of my internal energy, a tearing agony tore through my body as if my flesh were being peeled apart from within.
‘Damn it all.’
My remaining time was running out.
Dang Suje had long ceased paying attention to grandiose monikers like Divine Dragon or New Phoenix. The loftier the acclaim showered upon young martial artists, the more hollow their accomplishments usually proved to be.
Today, however, completely shattered that expectation.
Dang Suje found his astonishment deepening by the second.
The youth’s grasp of martial theory, his unfathomable reserve of internal qi, his lightning-fast tactical adjustments, and his uncanny ability to neutralize an adversary’s primary strengths—none of it resembled the conduct of an inexperienced youth in his early twenties.
‘This feels less like fighting a boy…’
It felt as though he were locked in combat with a grizzled veteran who had spent an entire lifetime wading through blood and carnage.
Most unsettling of all was that sword art capable of transmuting insubstantial illusions into lethal steel in the blink of an eye. He had never encountered nor heard of such an art throughout his years in the martial world. It provoked both deep shock and a rare thrill of discovery.
‘His sheer tenacity is terrifying as well.’
Even within the Tang Clan, where the scions were hardened against lethal venoms from birth, none matched the resolve of this outsider.
In that regard, Jin Sowoon was nothing short of extraordinary.
‘Still, this is the end of the road.’
The boy’s cycling maneuvers were clearly approaching their limit. While the deceptive art of concealing true strikes beneath illusionary blades could catch an opponent off guard, Dang Suje would not be snared by the same trick twice under these conditions.
Part of him wished to prolong the exchange, but pressing the boy any further might permanently cripple his martial foundation.
‘It is time to bring this to an end.’
A sound defeat today would serve as valuable fertilizer for the youngster’s growth while bolstering the prestige of the Tang Clan. Dang Suje was satisfied that this would fulfill his obligation.
Shiver!
Or so he had convinced himself—until an unprecedented sense of mortal peril gripped his heart.
‘I must get away!’
Even as he parried the overlapping sword forms that blurred the line between fantasy and reality, the hairs on his neck stood on end, and a bitter chill plunged down his spine.
An unyielding survival instinct seized his core. Whatever that coming strike was, he could not afford to let it touch him.
Accepting the risk, Dang Suje threw himself backward directly through the net of the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
Slice! Slice! Slice!
Fresh pain, a sensation he had not endured in years, forced a grimace through his teeth.
Once he slipped past the blizzard of sword trajectories and put ample distance between them…
“Hmm…”
He caught sight of the boy’s expression, steeped in plain disappointment.
“What…?”
Involuntary tremors ran through Dang Suje’s shoulders, exactly like a man seized by a sudden ague.
“…What was that strike?”
“Nothing of consequence.”
Nothing of consequence? Nothing at all?
It was anything but trivial. The very instincts that had kept him alive through countless brushes with death across the martial realm screamed that it was catastrophic.
‘I cannot prolong this.’
Delay was no longer an option.
The instant he reached his decision, he unleashed three separate venoms while simultaneously hurling a volley of concealed projectiles. Though the wind blew straight toward his own face, it mattered little. He would overwhelm the boy with poisoned steel and toxic vapors all at once.
Yet that insolent upstart—
Boom!
Without an ounce of hesitation, the youth discharged that absurdly monstrous palm strike, obliterating the flagstones and reducing the perimeter wall to rubble.
“You lunatic! Are you trying to pull down the Tang Clan’s estate brick by brick?”
“Then stand still and take the blow!”
Dang Suje almost laughed in sheer incredulity. Jin Sowoon was currently afflicted by no fewer than five distinct venoms; his internal condition should have been completely devastated.
Yet against all reason, the youth…
“Huff!”
…kept driving his limbs forward.
His willpower was so terrifyingly relentless that Dang Suje briefly wondered if he had somehow murdered the boy’s parents in a past life.
‘Tch… How am I supposed to handle this?’
His elder brother, Dang Hyeokje, had strictly forbidden him from inflicting permanent harm. These youths were destined to enter the Sword Tomb. Yet subduing a monster who ground his teeth and charged with suicidal ferocity without breaking him was proving nearly impossible even for Dang Suje.
Casting a glance toward the gallery, he saw Dang Hyeokje beaming broadly, nodding in quiet approval.
‘Is he really that delighted by this spectacle?’
Dang Suje observed his brother’s demeanor for a beat before a faint grin broke across his own lips. Truth be told, he found himself unable to dislike the headstrong brat either.
‘Very well, then.’
With tacit approval granted, restraint was no longer necessary.
Reaching beneath his garments, he drew forth every concealed projectile strapped to his person. In the boy’s current state, evading them cleanly would be an impossibility. He intended to release them in a single suffocating barrage to settle the match instantly.
Rumble.
Before he could act, the boy gathered that preposterous palm force once more.
Boom!
A shockwave of sheer destruction rolled across the courtyard. The overwhelming gale generated by the blast was more than sufficient to knock aside lighter throwing implements.
Yet how many more times could his reserves sustain such wanton expenditure?
Swallowtail Silver Needles, Golden Bee Needles, Asura Darts, and Thunder Blood Needles showered through the air like a sudden storm.
Carried on the draft, Soul-Scattering Incense, Crane-Top Red, Blood-Dissolving King Poison, and Snow Poison Flower invaded the youth’s pores, saturating him in lethal venom.
And the boy’s retaliation?
‘Is he completely deranged?!’
Once more, that identical, absurd palm force erupted.
Boom!
Having retreated outside the strike’s destructive radius, Dang Suje touched down lightly upon the wreckage of the courtyard, his eyes fixing upon Jin Sowoon.
The young man’s respiration was ragged and shallow. Dark discoloration crept across his skin, his eyes were shot with broken veins, and a stream of saliva slipped unchecked from his jaw. The poisons had thoroughly saturated his system. Merely remaining upright had to be an exercise in agonizing torment.
Even so, his blade remained steady.
Despite the ruin of his physical vessel, the forms he carved through the air possessed not a tremor of hesitation. It was a sight that demanded raw reverence.
“In that case, I will meet you with everything I have.”
It was a technique Dang Suje had kept dormant for a full decade, ever since slaying the monster known as the Fatal Acupoint Poison Demon.
Heaven-Turning Flower Rain.
While not entirely the equal of the legendary Myriad Heavens Flower Rain, it was an ultimate secret art celebrated as its nearest peer.
Dang Suje sprang skyward with the grace of an ascending crane, his hands blurring into indistinct silhouettes. A cloud of minute silver spheres cascaded from his fingers.
Until now, the space had been dominated by Jin Sowoon’s sword light. Now, Dang Suje’s silver beads eclipsed the arena—eclipsing the very heavens above.
Screeeech!
Dozens, then hundreds of shimmering pellets fell in an unbroken deluge, leaving not a single gap in their descent.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The defensive structures Jin Sowoon raised were systematically torn apart by the relentless metallic hail. Ultimately, the barrage struck his form dead-on.
‘I only hope he can mend from this.’
Even in the act of pressing the strike, Dang Suje could not suppress a twinge of concern as he watched the impact.
Bang!
The figure pierced by the metallic rain suddenly burst into a billow of white smoke.
When the haze cleared, what remained on the stone was…
‘A talisman?’
Dang Suje tilted his head, utterly bewildered.
In the next instant, a silhouette erupted from the floorboards behind him.
“J-Jin Sowoon!”
It was unquestionably Jin Sowoon—the very youth who should have been paralyzed by lethal venoms.
Wait. How could Jin Sowoon be—?
“That is simply the way the dice rolled.”
“What?”
The terrifying resonance of that monstrous palm art gathered once more in Jin Sowoon’s hand.
Worse, Dang Suje had leapt into the air to unleash Heaven-Turning Flower Rain and was currently in mid-descent. Having not yet attained the profound stage of Void-Walking, he had no purchase to pivot or evade in midair.
‘C-curse it…’
Boom!
Caught flush by the immense breadth of the blast, he was sent hurtling downward. Though his protective qi preserved him from internal rupture, the spot where his boots finally touched down was…
‘Damn it all…’
The shattered section of the training ring that Jin Sowoon had demolished during his earlier outburst.
In short, he had landed beyond the boundary.
“I believe that constitutes my victory, does it not?”
“Ha… Hahaha…”
Leaving Dang Suje standing in stunned speechlessness, Jin Sowoon raised his gaze toward the overseers’ pavilion—a silent demand for the formal verdict.
A heavy stillness settled over the courtyard.
Dang Mugap, who had been resting a hand over his mouth, projected his voice across the grounds.
“Jin Sowoon takes the victory!”
A chilly hush gripped the audience.
The victor did not bother to scan the onlookers, assuming the silence was only natural. It was hardly surprising that the proud members of the Tang Clan would find such an unconventional defeat difficult to swallow.
‘My aim was never to win their favor anyway.’
Just as Jin Sowoon turned on his heel to depart—
Clap… clap clap.
Clap clap clap…
Clap clap clap clap clap.
A ripple of applause broke out, swiftly swelling into a crescendo.
Jin Sowoon paused, glancing across the surrounding balconies. The figures clad in green robes were not sulking; they were cheering and pounding their hands together in genuine excitement.
“To push Elder Dang to the brink like that!”
“Well done! You have my respect, Black Flame Dragon!”
“Incredible display!”
Acclamations? Truly?
Then came the stranger declarations.
“Let us treat each other well from now on!”
Mixed in among the praises were utterly bewildering sentiments.
“Welcome to the Tang Clan!”
Part of the Tang Clan?
“Black Flame Dragon, you are more than worthy of our household!”
The more he listened, the more absurd it became.
“If you ever make our young miss shed a tear, you will answer for it!”
“Do not think the prize is won just yet! You still have plenty of competitors to beat back!”
Nonsense upon nonsense.
“Good grief… What on earth are they blathering about?”
The Tang Clan was truly a den of madmen beyond the reach of common sense.
Jin Sowoon clicked his tongue, shook his head, and strode away from the ring.
Meanwhile…
“Hehe…”
Dang Mugap had lowered his hand, a look of profound satisfaction curling the edges of his mouth.
It turned out to be a fine spring day for the Tang Clan, even after being bathed in flying daggers and lethal poison.
Grimacing, I accepted the antidote offered by Dang Suje and settled into meditative breathing to stabilize my qi.
Because several distinct toxins had mingled within me, the purge was far from thorough. Even so, thanks to my body’s preposterous recuperative rate, walking posed no real hardship.
Without wasting a moment, I marched straight to Dang Hyeokje’s quarters and laid out my terms.
“I require ten thousand of them.”
“…Have you completely lost your senses?”
The Poison King’s brow knit into deep furrows.
“Did you not originally ask for one thousand?”
“That figure applied when I was merely petitioning for help. The circumstances have changed.”
I squared my shoulders and thrust out my chest.
“I have met the trial of Strongest-Decides-the-Wish.”
“…”
For the very first time, a look of genuine fluster crossed the Poison King’s face.
“To be frank… that contest was not actually Strongest-Decides-the-Wish…”
“Excuse me?”
What? Did my ears deceive me?
“Strongest-Decides-the-Wish is an ancient rite open strictly to blood kin of our household.”
“Pardon?”
“…Which means what you engaged in was merely…”
“What?”
“…”
What kind of shameless drivel was this old man peddling?
It was Strongest-Decides-the-Wish, yet now it was not Strongest-Decides-the-Wish?
“Unbelievable! Are you telling me that the revered Poison King—in a crisis of such absolute gravity, where every passing second is paid in lives—tricked me into fighting through deceitful, underhanded, and shameless falsehoods purely for his own private amusement?”
“…You are exaggerating grossly.”
“Furthermore, I was drenched in lethal poisons, nearly went blind, suffered heart failure, and came within a hair’s breadth of being shredded into mincemeat by flying iron during that match… and you dare claim it was merely a friendly brawl?!”
“…”
Was he out of his mind? This old fossil had sat on his high throne as an unrivaled master for far too long, clearly forgetting that the world still held consequences.
“Are those truly your words?!”
He might be unmatched in martial skill, and his lineage might tower like Mount Tai itself, but so what?
“I treated the Poison King’s word as a sacred promise worth ten thousand taels of gold and threw my life on the line! And now you reveal I was nothing more than a plaything for your idle entertainment?!”
Whether he was Mount Tai or the progenitor of the entire Martial Alliance, a wrongdoer needed to be called to account.
“I was told that deceit, treachery, and fraud ran rampant among both the righteous factions and the unorthodox sects, but never… never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined…! That the revered Clan Head of the supreme Tang Clan under the heavens! The Poison King himself! Dang Seohui’s own grandfather! Would turn out to be a chronic fraud who vomits lies and deception every time he parts his lips! I. Truly. Had. No. Clueee!”
“Cease this…”
“My heart is so deeply wounded that I shall pen an account of this day into a chronicle and reveal to the entire martial world that righteousness is dead! I shall compose a ballad mocking this farce and—”
“Silence! Be quiet, you brat!”
“…”
The Poison King looked as though he had been forced to chew on bitter gall.
“If you run around peddling baseless slander, you might find yourself vanishing into an unmarked ditch…”
“Then the solution is simple: deliver the pills.”
“…”
Following a tense silence, the Poison King locked his gaze onto mine, his eyes unblinking.
“Committing the resources to craft ten thousand Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets means I may be unable to dispatch timely aid to the sick across Sichuan and Gansu. Do you still maintain this takes precedence?”
While that was a valid concern, I harbored no doubt. The Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets were of paramount importance right now.
“I do.”
At my steadfast reply, an emerald glint flashed within the Poison King’s eyes as he measured me.
Without another word, he issued an order to his attendant.
“Instruct the Pavilion Master of the Tang Clan Medical Pavilion to gather every available physician throughout the Tang Clan and across the entirety of Sichuan.”
“Understood!”
Dang Mugap bowed and quickly hurried out of the hall.
He ought to have agreed to this from the start. Tch.
“Then it seems no unfortunate rumors will need to spread after all.”
“Grr… You disrespectful little wretch…”
Ignoring his muttered grumble, I pivoted on my heel and strolled outside with an easy stride.
‘Let us take stock…’
For the immediate term, I arranged to secure a preliminary batch of five hundred Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets from the Tang Clan.
Nearly fifty physicians alongside more than a hundred female healers congregated within the compound grounds. Massive medicinal cauldrons were erected, decoction vessels hissed with boiling water, and the pungent, earthy fragrance of brewing roots permeated every corner of the estate.
The moment word spread that the Tang Clan required Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets urgently, local doctors also contributed whatever emergency reserves they had already compiled.
Within two days, three hundred pellets had been completed.
‘The sheer logistics of the Tang Clan are staggering.’
It was an operational feat that commanded genuine awe.
By the third day, the total count had already reached five hundred. While manufacturing ten thousand would inevitably take time, considering the sea of rare herbs and skilled hands at their command, completing the full quota was well within reach.
Just as my outlook was beginning to brighten—
“S-save us…”
A ragged contingent of the Tang Clan investigation team sent to probe the Sword Tomb stumbled back into the compound.
Then—
“The Sword Tomb… is a living… h-hell… Never… under any circumstance… enter that place…”
Having gasped out those frantic, disjointed words—
“Never… step inside…”
—they slumped onto the ground, senseless.
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