Chapter 32

Longlao’s head became dizzy and his senses dulled.

It was because of the monkshood poison.

His head was split open and hot blood flowed.

Longlao became anxious. He needed to detoxify the poison before it spread further.

“It wasn’t me who released the poison in Hundred Flower Valley, it was that b*st*rd Mang-ryo! Why should I die unjustly when I’ve done nothing wrong!”

Longlao kept talking incessantly as he took down the book chest he was carrying on his back. Fumbling, he opened the lid. Inside was a powder that could neutralize the monkshood poison.

But Jin Ja-gang wasn’t going to leave it alone. He immediately kicked the book chest away.

“If you kill me like this, I’ll wander through the nine hells and curse you!”

Though Longlao kept talking, his scheming hadn’t stopped. Having anticipated that Jin Ja-gang would interfere, he had already taken a poisoned needle from the book chest and was holding it in his deerskin-gloved hand.

The moment Jin Ja-gang kicked the chest, Longlao threw the poisoned needle in that direction with all his might.

“Ugh!”

Jin Ja-gang let out a stifled groan.

It hit!

Longlao rejoiced. At such close range, there was no way he could have dodged.

“Got you! It’s Seven-Holes Poison! Now you’ll die within a quarter-hour, bleeding from every orifice in your body!”

But the voice of Jin Ja-gang, who had been struck by the poisoned needle, was surprisingly calm.

“Seven-Holes Poison… it really hurts.”

“W-what?”

Thwack!

As soon as Jin Ja-gang finished speaking, Longlao felt a sharp pain in his instep. Jin Ja-gang had pulled out the needle and used it to stab Longlao’s foot.

“Argh!”

Longlao tried to kick, but his body wouldn’t obey, causing him to miss. Instead, he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

“Ugh, aaaargh!”

His instep became numb. Immediately, an overwhelming pain swept over him. The monkshood was extremely toxic, but the Seven-Holes Poison was a mixed poison created solely for killing. Having made it himself, Longlao knew better than anyone how terrifying it was.

The Seven-Holes Poison stabbed into his instep spread throughout his body instantly through his warm blood. Already his senses were fading, and his legs were becoming stiff.

Jin Ja-gang’s voice reached him.

“Bleeding from every orifice until death, you said?”

Longlao’s skin crawled at Jin Ja-gang’s emotionless tone.

“I’m innocent! I’ve done nothing wrong!”

Even as he spoke, Longlao pulled out the antidote for the Seven-Holes Poison from his sleeve. It was a powdered antidote wrapped in oiled paper. But his hands trembled so much that he dropped the antidote.

As he fumbled on the ground, he heard Jin Ja-gang picking up the antidote.

Longlao was overcome with despair. He could feel the flesh on his instep decomposing and fluid oozing out. Now it would spread throughout his body.

Longlao cried out as if in desperation.

“If you have any conscience, blame Mang-ryo for the crime and let me take the antidote quickly!”

Jin Ja-gang remained cold.

“I told you I remembered.”

Longlao didn’t have much time. He urgently asked:

“What! What are you talking about!”

Jin Ja-gang answered.

“At the Martial Arts Alliance’s Yunnan Branch, introducing Brother Gwak-o to Magistrate Baek Li-jung. Defending the Extreme Poison Sect in the courtroom.”

Longlao froze.

Jin Ja-gang asked.

“That was you, wasn’t it?” … Jin Ja-gang asked again.

“And yet you claim to have done nothing wrong?”

“I don’t, I don’t know anything about that. I don’t know!”

Longlao continued to deny it until the end. But a foul smell emanated from his entire body, and soon his skin began to rot, with fluid oozing and blood beginning to form.

“Urgh, please… the antidote…”

Jin Ja-gang watched Longlao’s state as he wiped the blood flowing from his own eyes, nose, and mouth. The Seven-Holes Poison had affected him, but it wasn’t fatal to Jin Ja-gang.

But for Longlao, it was different. Longlao was truly bleeding from all seven orifices—eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

Jin Ja-gang didn’t give him the antidote. He threw it far away.

Hearing the sound of the antidote being thrown, Longlao despaired.

“It hurts… it’s so painful. Urgh…”

Longlao was blind, and he could feel his body rotting from the fingertips. The poison had already spread as far as it could. His entire body felt as if it were being pierced by needles.

Quite some time had passed since he had been stabbed by the poisoned needle. Even if he took the antidote now, he probably wouldn’t survive.

With the feeling that his body was melting and sinking into the ground, Longlao writhed in agony.

At that moment, Yong-myeong coughed.

“Cough, cough.”

When Jin Ja-gang looked at Yong-myeong, he said.

“Show… mercy…”

But Jin Ja-gang didn’t move.

Longlao had to die. As painfully as possible.

Jin Ja-gang felt no compassion for Longlao, who was dying miserably without acknowledging his crimes until the very end.

Yong-myeong, covered in blood, gave a bitter smile before crawling to where Longlao was.

Longlao opened his eyes, which were filled with blood. Though he could no longer see, he knew Yong-myeong had approached.

Sweating from the pain, Longlao mocked Yong-myeong.

“How weak…”

Yong-myeong painfully pulled out the sword that had been embedded in his side and struggled to hold it up.

“In your next life, please, don’t be born, as an evil person.”

“Hehehe. To think… that I would die so pathetically…”

Longlao laughed with a self-deprecating voice.

“Fare, well.”

Yong-myeong swung the sword at Longlao.

“Huup!”

Longlao stretched his neck, preparing to die.

Slash!

Unfortunately, Longlao didn’t die from a single sword strike. Ending someone’s life with a single blow is rarely easy.

Moreover, Yong-myeong wasn’t in good condition. Especially since it wasn’t a sharp dagger but a broad sword with a wobbling blade, it was even more difficult.

The neck was only half-severed.

Longlao spurted blood from his cut neck.

“Gak! Gaak!”

It was even more painful than before. Longlao’s body convulsed.

Yong-myeong gritted his teeth and swung the sword once more. But because Longlao’s body was convulsing, the sword missed and hit his shoulder instead.

Longlao screamed.

“Gak!”

Yong-myeong struck with the sword again, but this time it hit the collarbone. Now even swinging the sword was exhausting. When he forcefully swung it, the blade got stuck in the collarbone and couldn’t be pulled out.

“Ha, haa. Oh no.”

Yong-myeong had no choice but to release the sword and sit down.

Longlao’s eyes showed both disbelief and malice. With a voice that sounded almost deflated due to his severed neck, he spat out curses.

“You… you b*st*rd…”

Longlao had to writhe in continued agony for a while longer.

But as time passed, Longlao’s convulsions gradually subsided.

“Gurk, gurrrk.”

With bloody foam seeping from his mouth, Longlao finally stopped moving.

Yong-myeong leaned against a tree. Having lost too much blood, he felt dizzy and his lips were parched.

Jin Ja-gang approached and crouched before him.

Yong-myeong looked at Jin Ja-gang quietly.

The wounds on his face that had swollen from the scorpion stings had already subsided. There was a large ulcer on his thigh where the Seven-Holes Poison needle had pierced him, but that too seemed to be healing gradually.

What a remarkable encounter this child must have had, Yong-myeong thought.

He thought that Jin Ja-gang might be able to survive this terrible fate.

But not himself. Though the paralysis was wearing off, the wounds inflicted by Longlao were too severe.

“Haha… I think… I’m done for.”

This time, Jin Ja-gang didn’t say he could survive. The situation was different from when he was only poisoned with pufferfish toxin.

Just looking at the blood flowing from his side, it was clear he couldn’t be saved. And as for his leg… the white bones were exposed in various places.

That’s why Jin Ja-gang had stayed—to listen to Yong-myeong’s final words.

Yong-myeong looked at Jin Ja-gang and asked.

“Do you still, intend to, seek revenge?”

His paralysis had eased, so his speech was flowing better.

Jin Ja-gang answered without the slightest hesitation.

“Yes.”

Yong-myeong coughed with blood.

“Cough, cough!”

Yong-myeong realized he truly had very little time left. He took the Herbal Cultivation Method from his chest and gave it to Jin Ja-gang.

“The Medicine King Sect, has only, me left. Here, take it.”

Jin Ja-gang accepted the manual. But he shook his head.

“I am a descendant of Hundred Flower Valley. I can’t continue the Medicine King Sect’s lineage.”

“Just preserving the secret manual, is enough. As a co-successor… if fate brings you together someday, you can find, another successor.”

“Yes.”

When Jin Ja-gang accepted, Yong-myeong finally felt at ease.

“Hoo… ooh… at least the three-hundred-year, history of the Medicine King Sect, won’t end, with me.”

Taking a long breath, Yong-myeong looked at Jin Ja-gang.

After staring at Jin Ja-gang for a while, Yong-myeong said.

“I, ask of you.”

Jin Ja-gang tightly closed his mouth and nodded.

A hot feeling welled up in his chest. But not wanting to burden Yong-myeong’s mind, he deliberately maintained an expressionless face.

Jin Ja-gang drew poisonous energy and gathered it at his little finger. He bit it and dropped the poison into Yong-myeong’s mouth.

Yong-myeong smiled. Though his face had turned deathly pale and he was sweating painfully, he seemed to feel relieved.

“Kuk!”

The poison Jin Ja-gang possessed was the deadliest of all poisons.

It was extremely fatal to Yong-myeong, who was already barely breathing.

“Thank y…”

Yong-myeong couldn’t even finish his sentence before convulsing and letting out a short death scream.

“Kek!”

Then he gradually went limp. The light in his eyes faded.

Tears flowed from Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

His heart felt empty… Though it had been brief, the fact that he wasn’t alone, the fact that there was an adult he could rely on emotionally, had been unexpectedly comforting to Jin Ja-gang.

Now Jin Ja-gang was alone again.

Jin Ja-gang wiped his tears, stood up, and bowed to Yong-myeong’s corpse.

Jin Ja-gang tightly pressed his lips together.

Though his heart ached, he couldn’t waste time being emotional. There were still fourteen members of the pursuit team remaining.

Jin Ja-gang went to Longlao’s corpse and searched his body. He wanted to gather anything that might be useful.

From the left sleeve, he found powders wrapped in oiled paper. Among them was the black Nausea Powder that had troubled Jin Ja-gang.

In the opposite sleeve, there were small ceramic vials. When opened, they emitted a not unpleasant fragrance, suggesting they were likely antidotes. Looking further in the sleeve, a small whistle rolled out.

‘A whistle?’

It was an ordinary whistle used for signaling.

If he had blown it earlier, he could have received help, but it seemed he was too greedy and couldn’t blow it because his body became paralyzed.

Finding nothing else, Jin Ja-gang went to the fallen book chest to check inside.

It was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items and unidentifiable objects, including the branches and plants that Jin Ja-gang had coated with poison, as well as spiky chestnut-like throwing weapons and poisoned needles.

Most items were clearly related to poison, but as is common with suspicious individuals, Longlao hadn’t labeled them. He was worried someone might steal and use them.

Jin Ja-gang looked back and forth between the whistle and the book chest.

‘Fourteen remain.’

He looked around. The terrain where he stood was like the inside of a gourd bottle, surrounded by bushes in a circular shape. It was as if the corpses of Yong-myeong and Longlao were placed inside a gourd bottle.

Jin Ja-gang thought.

‘If I blow this whistle…’