Chapter 175

Chapter 175
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**Chapter 175: Hundred Poisons Immunity**

The Tang Clan had long held one single burning ambition: to reinvent the martial arts they had inherited, bound as they were by inherent, unyielding limits. Among the countless obstacles standing in the way of that dream was building a true tolerance to poisons.

*Not a constitution that can shrug off every poison under heaven, but at the very least, one that resists the very toxins we ourselves wield.*

Naturally, the people of the Tang Clan already boasted far greater resistance than ordinary folk. Flames could reduce even toxic miasma to ash—all thanks to the Three Yangs Return to Origin Art, which drew its power from the profound principles of extreme yang. Yet it was not enough.

*It is woefully insufficient.*

No matter what they did, poison entering the body still brought sickness, plain and simple. Even burning it away with extreme yang true energy only halted the damage; it did not truly purge the poison.

Legend spoke of a secret technique hidden deep within the Poison Valley of the southern wilds—one that let a person swallow poison itself and walk away unharmed. The Tang Clan, barely a century old yet already the foremost authority on poisons among the Hundred Poisons Schools, possessed no such secret.

*Working with poisons yet risking poisoning at the slightest mistake… it is utterly ridiculous.*

This obsession had consumed Dang Yang’s every waking thought. He sought to forge, by deliberate design, a body that could absorb poison without being harmed by it—whether by merging so completely with toxins that their very nature as harm was undone, or by raising resistance so high that common poisons lost all power entirely. Yet his research dragged on, yielding nothing. It was only to be expected. Poisons existed to harm life and ravage the flesh; building a frame that welcomed them and remained whole was no small feat. In truth, it ought to have been impossible.

“P-P-P-Poison… Immunity…!”

Dang Yang’s eyes bulged in their sockets. His jaw fell so far it ached.

Hundred Poisons Immunity. A constitution impervious to every single one of the Tang Clan’s hundred poisons. The theoretical peak, the perfect state he had set as his life’s work—something he had not been certain he could reach in ten years, or even a lifetime—had appeared right before his eyes. And it had come about from nothing more than a flow of energy.

“Baek Gongzi! How on earth did you manage this? How!”

Dang Yang’s fervour was so intense Yang-hui took an involuntary step back. The older man’s eyes blazed with wild, unbridled excitement.

“It was merely an emergency measure… I used Reverse Acupoint Stimulation…”

“That energy! That true qi of yours—it was the key to Hundred Poisons Immunity! It is beyond belief!”

Hundred Poisons Immunity. Even from the name alone, it was clearly a landmark breakthrough—perhaps the vital clue the Tang Clan had sought for generations. It might open the way to a full, systematic understanding of what they had only guessed at.

“Elder, please, compose yourself first.”

“Gun-ah! How can I possibly be calm!”

Even Dang Gun, stepping forward to intervene, had a look of unalloyed joy in his gaze.

“Hui dongsaeng, I always knew your true qi was extraordinary, but to achieve Hundred Poisons Immunity in a single attempt…” Her voice remained steady, yet her eyes swam with wonder. Dang Yeon walked to another jar, retrieved the inner disciple who had been placed within, and stepped into the liquid herself. “Hui dongsaeng—do the same for me.”

“Pardon?”

“We must confirm whether this was chance or something that can be repeated. Treat me as you did the others.”

“B-But to step in without any preparation… is that truly safe?”

“Of course it is not. I will be dead within moments unless you help me.”

She had lost all restraint. Her tone stayed calm, yet her judgement had given way entirely. It was characteristic of her—Dang Yeon had inherited the greatest gift for poison purification among all the inner disciples. She was the young clan leader’s sister, yes, but without this same fierce, reckless resolve, she would never have risen to where she stood.

“Hurry. My limbs are already beginning to go numb.”

“Very well. I will do it.”

Yang-hui pressed his palm to the centre of Dang Yeon’s back and poured forth Harmonious Heaven Immortal Qi.

“Ugh…”

Dang Yeon turned her focus inward, cataloguing and analysing every shift and change the energy brought about within her. This was a power that drew all things into unity, guiding them toward smooth, balanced flow.

Harmonious Heaven Immortal Qi. Not all poisons were the same. Their natures differed endlessly, making them all the more dangerous when combined; when all hundred poisons mingled, they became something monstrous, shifting and mutating beyond control. Yet now, the dozens upon dozens of distinct poison qi invading her system began to blend. Differences dissolved until they felt like a single force. Not merely felt—perceived, as clearly as if they were visible.

Yes, this was it. The energy that drew all into one, that brought perfect harmony. The hundred poisons had become one—both a hundred distinct forces and a single unified whole. The reason she could see it so clearly…

*Poison. However different in form, their essence is the same. They are one. I understand now. The path lies open.*

Unlike Dang Gun, Dang Yeon had not yet broken through to the highest realm. Dang Gun had scaled that wall through hidden ways—through the art of combat itself. Dang Yeon sought to wear it away, step by step, through the way of poisons. It was an obvious truth, yet one that made her path all the harder. A martial artist could reach the very peak of human ability through their art because within that art lay the Dao—the Way, the path refined and elevated until it touched the heavens. Poison arts, by contrast, were built on layered techniques and methods of harm, on mixing substances to create new toxins and dispersing them to devastating effect. Could such a path truly hold a Dao of its own?

*It can. Poison has its own Dao.*

A master of the sword reaches the peak and gains sword qi—the power to cut through all things using nothing but will and energy. A master of sound ascends and gains tone transformation—the power to wield every sound freely as if it were a physical force. What, then, of the master of poisons?

*Energy. Wielding poison through qi. Grasping poison qi itself.*

Poison qi. Poison made of pure energy. Toxin, transformed into formless, flowing power.

“Ah… ahhh…”

Yang-hui’s brows lifted sharply. To speak while receiving an infusion was unwise; it could throw one’s energy completely out of balance.

*What is happening? I gave her what was needed, yet why…?*

She was deep in a trance, her awareness turned entirely inward. Had understanding struck her that suddenly?

*This is dangerous.* The poison liquid was clearing, so there did not seem to be immediate peril, yet still—*What insight has she found?* To reach the peak required mind, qi, and body to become one; the realisation that intention gives birth to wondrous power, that will becomes action, that energy and purpose are inseparable. As far as Yang-hui could tell, Dang Yeon had not yet achieved that unity, nor found any equivalent to the sword master’s union of will and qi.

*This is not merely the infusion itself. I have let her feel this energy many times before.* Over the years they had spent together at the Baek Clan manor, they had trained side by side hundreds of times. This was no new experience. Yang-hui focused his awareness, reaching within to see what had shifted within her.

*I see now. She has grasped the truth of unity.* The ever-shifting, clashing energies of the hundred poisons were settling into harmony. Not perfectly, not entirely, yet closely enough that the distinction was all but lost. Every path to the peak converged on one single truth: unity. Mind, qi, and body as one; the three great insights in perfect accord; oneself and one’s power indistinguishable. That was the barrier that separated the greatest from all others.

*And beyond that union…* He closed his eyes and let his awareness spread wide. Yet the energy within him continued to move of its own accord. Vital Intent Qi—energy given life and purpose by will. In past lives he had wielded this power freely; now he had always called it forth through the strength of the Seongcheol Sword, never from within himself.

*I understand now why it has been so hard to make this power truly my own. I knew it in theory, but never truly in my heart until this moment.* The qi lived, surging and coiling like a living thing. He had grasped it completely—Vital Intent Qi, one of the three realisations that would carry him beyond even the peak.

“Phew…”

When Yang-hui opened his eyes again, the room had changed. The clan leader and all the elders stood around them in a circle.

“Gaju-nim? Elders?”

No one spoke. He looked from face to face, taking in the scene.

*Yeon noona must have recovered sooner than I did.* She had changed into fresh clothing and now stood composedly at Dang Gun’s side. Yet Elder Dang Yang lay slumped on the floor.

Dang Gun followed his gaze and answered the unspoken question. “He was overcome with joy and fainted. Who would have thought such a thing possible?”

“Truly?”

It meant something far greater than even Hundred Poisons Immunity. A cold prickle of unease ran through him; the fear that he might never truly be free of the Tang Clan was beginning to feel less like anxiety and more like fact.

“As many as five, perhaps.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your wives.”

He felt his heart sink.

“Hui dongsaeng—no, my dearest benefactor.”

“Ugh! Please do not call me that, Yeon noona!”

“Ahaha, I dislike it too. But in any case, you owe us an explanation. I have ascended to the peak realm. Through the Dao of poison.”

“What does that mean?”

“What does it mean? Do you have any idea how momentous this is! No one in the entire history of the Tang Clan has ever achieved it!”

Surely not. In lives past, Dang Gun had reached that same height, wielding poison as easily as others breathed. If Dang Gun—master of hidden arts, known as the Dark Dragon—had possessed that level of understanding, then the Tang Clan ought to have laid down the foundations of this path long ago.

“It is not that no one has ever crossed that threshold through poison before. But I am the first to see it clearly, in a form that can be taught and passed on.”

“Truly?”

“And Hundred Poisons Immunity as well. It is proven beyond doubt—your true qi is the key that makes it possible.”

“I see.”

Perhaps he ought to gather his things and leave at once. This could turn out to be far more trouble than he had bargained for.

“Then… what is the path?” It was the clan leader, Dang Seong, who spoke softly.

“The path is the way itself. If there is no road that leads to the summit, how can anyone ever reach it?” Yang-hui found himself thinking of the Tang Clan’s arts. They were like those of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans—they knew the peak existed, yet had no map, no guide, no way forward. A cruel burden.

“There is so much to explain, yet the words we have waited for have been clear in our hearts for a very long time.” Dang Seong slowly raised both hands, one palm open, the other closed in a fist, then brought them together in a gesture of deepest reverence. “We offer you our deepest gratitude, Benefactor!”

Every member of the Tang Clan bowed in unison. “We offer you our deepest gratitude, Benefactor!”

He returned the gesture, his mind racing. He would need to hear every detail to understand what this meant, yet he knew it would bind the Baek and Tang Clans together as tightly as a blood oath.

*If only I had thought to use Reverse Acupoint Stimulation on Dang hyung and Yeon noona sooner.* He had performed the technique on Baek Heon-so and the promising young disciples of the Baek Clan, yet he had held back from Dang Gun and Dang Yeon—one did not treat the most respected members of an allied house so freely.

*Who could have guessed that true qi would be the missing piece of their greatest art?* True qi, which healed and balanced all things, meeting a discipline built on harm. He had never imagined their union could yield such staggering results.

*This will change everything for the Tang Clan. Their arts will advance faster than ever before.* To be called Benefactor by the clan leader himself—surely that gave him leave to learn their secrets, to study and pass on what he found? The greatest barrier had fallen.

“Let us go within and speak. There is much to discuss.”

As Yang-hui stepped forward, Dang Gun spoke quickly. “Gaju-nim, as the saying goes—no conclusion can be drawn without three trials. Hui-ah, I ask you as well—let me be next.” His eyes shone with eager hope. If even Dang Gun was this eager, he truly longed to know.

“Dang hyung… I am sorry, but I have no inner power left to give today.”

“I… see.” Disappointment settled over Dang Gun’s face. Yang-hui felt a pang of guilt.

*Still.* He found himself smiling despite himself. *I have given them something beyond measure. Surely I may expect something equally great in return?* Whatever came next, he knew it would be truly extraordinary.

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