Chapter 56

The warriors approached Jin Ja-gang, but he halted their advance simply by fanning smoke toward them.

“Cough, cough!”

The warriors attempting to get close to Jin Ja-gang began coughing, some even vomiting as they stumbled in disarray.

A few staggered unsteadily.

“Cough, cough!”

“Cough, hack, hack!”

Even the Stone Forest Gang warriors weren’t immune to poison, but with the wind blowing against them, they couldn’t use their own toxins effectively.

The sound of coughing from those surrounding Jin Ja-gang only grew more intense. Even Jo Yang couldn’t suppress his own persistent coughs.

Jo Yang pulled out another antidote pill and swallowed it.

Yet, even as he did so, Jin Ja-gang watched without intervening or showing any sign of concern.

Only then did Jo Yang sense that something was amiss.

The sharp-faced hall master who had stepped forward earlier and collapsed hadn’t gotten back up. Judging by his completely limp form, he was either dead or unconscious.

Come to think of it, hadn’t that hall master already taken an antidote pill back in the main hall?

“Huh?”

Something felt wrong.

Why wasn’t the coughing subsiding? Why was it only getting worse?

“Could the antidote not be working?”

Why?

Jo Yang glared at Jin Ja-gang with narrowed eyes.

He felt uneasy.

“You b*st*rd! What kind of trick have you pulled?!”

Jin Ja-gang responded nonchalantly.

“Is the antidote made from Smilax glabra not working well for you?”

Jo Yang was taken aback.

“How does this guy know about Smilax glabra?”

Jo Yang stammered.

“Th-that’s…”

“It probably won’t be very effective.”

Jo Yang flinched.

Jin Ja-gang pointed to the jar in front of him, from which smoke was billowing.

“I mixed some tea leaves into this jar along with the cinnabar poison.”

“Tea leaves?”

Jo Yang thought for a moment, then grimaced.

“Huh?”

Tea leaves!

Smilax glabra is generally a mild herb that can be used as an antidote for cinnabar poisoning with few restrictions, but there are two important caveats.

First, it must not be used by those with liver and kidney yin deficiency. Those with poor liver and kidney function should avoid Smilax glabra.

Second, it must not be used with green tea. When combined with green tea, the antidote’s effectiveness is neutralized. That’s why, within the Stone Forest Gang, there was a half-joking saying that it’s better to drink alcohol than green tea.

And yet, Jin Ja-gang was exploiting this very principle of incompatibility!

The smoke from burning tea leaves was counteracting the detoxifying effect of Smilax glabra, rendering the antidote useless.

“I’ve been had!”

Jin Ja-gang had deliberately exposed himself in front of Jo Yang and the others to ensure they inhaled the smoke laced with tea leaves.

Jo Yang ground his teeth.

“You lured us in!”

Jin Ja-gang readily admitted it.

“That’s correct.”

“Then all that talk about eight years ago and whatever else!”

“Let’s just say it was to buy time.”

“Urgh!”

From the start, all the talk about not being ready to speak, or how he used cinnabar and arsenic, was just to stall for time. It was to ensure that the Stone Forest Gang members inhaled enough of the tea leaf smoke.

“Cough, cough!”

Jo Yang coughed violently. To make matters worse, blood began mixing with his coughs.

The jar continued to emit smoke infused with cinnabar poison.

Jo Yang berated himself. He had relied too much on the antidote and lingered in the smoke for too long. Since the antidote wasn’t working, the poisoning must have worsened.

The sound of coughing echoed from all directions. People were vomiting and collapsing one after another. Symptoms of acute cinnabar poisoning, such as dizziness and loss of balance, were becoming evident.

Jo Yang’s head spun.

“Damn it! What kind of poison is this…?”

He couldn’t understand what kind of poison could be this potent. The cinnabar poison he knew wasn’t this deadly.

Regardless, his only thought now was to survive. Of course, the other warriors and hall masters felt the same.

But with Jin Ja-gang blocking the entrance and fanning smoke, they couldn’t escape that way. They would have to retreat backward or find a way over the wall.

“If I want to live, I have to run!”

He felt wronged that someone like this had come after him when he was living peacefully without causing trouble, but that wasn’t his main concern right now.

Right now, he just wanted to survive.

Jo Yang immediately began to back away.

The hall masters, taking their cue from Jo Yang, also started to retreat stealthily.

Jin Ja-gang watched them with a steady gaze.

He found it curious.

The Stone Forest Gang was far more disorganized than he had expected. They didn’t even come close to half the discipline of the Extreme Poison Sect. Even their leader’s words and actions seemed no better than those of a third-rate thug.

Was it because Jin Ja-gang had been a child back then and was now an adult?

Or was it because Jin Ja-gang had become much stronger than before, making them appear weaker in comparison?

Either way, it was clear that the Stone Forest Gang was in poor shape.

And regardless of their condition, it was also crystal clear that they had to die.

Watching the Stone Forest Gang warriors slowly retreating, Jin Ja-gang spoke up.

“When exposed to cinnabar poison, your mouth ulcerates and you start coughing. If it worsens, you experience tinnitus and diarrhea. If it gets even worse, headaches set in, and eventually, sores form on your skin while your hands tremble. By then, you’ve reached the final stage of poisoning, and in the end, you go mad and die as a raving lunatic.”

This was a fact well-known within the Stone Forest Gang. However, hearing it in the midst of experiencing it firsthand was an entirely different matter.

The Stone Forest Gang warriors were too busy staring at their own hands to pay attention. Already, most of them had trembling hands.

In the meantime, their cinnabar poisoning had progressed further, reaching the final stages.

Jin Ja-gang raised a small gourd.

In a situation like this, Jin Ja-gang’s seemingly random action was highly effective in drawing the attention of the Stone Forest Gang members.

“You must be curious.”

With that single statement from Jin Ja-gang, Jo Yang felt like he was going insane.

He knew full well that Jin Ja-gang was stalling for time, yet he couldn’t help but ask what he meant by “curious.” Since Jin Ja-gang stood there with an air of not answering until asked, Jo Yang had no choice but to stop his retreat and ask.

“Cough, what are you talking about! What’s there to be curious about?!”

Jin Ja-gang responded leisurely, yet still in a calm tone.

“Why am I, standing right here, not poisoned?”

At those words, a feeling like a bolt of lightning shot through Jo Yang and the Stone Forest Gang warriors.

They exchanged glances.

Indeed.

The smoke billowing from the jar was killing them. Just getting close caused vomiting and chaos. Already, several had collapsed on the ground, unable to get up.

So why was Jin Ja-gang, standing right next to the jar, completely unaffected?

Why wasn’t he even coughing?

The eyes of everyone in the Stone Forest Gang turned to one spot.

The gourd Jin Ja-gang was holding.

Even without saying it, there was no doubt that the secret lay in that gourd.

An antidote! That must be an antidote!

And it had to be far more effective than the Smilax glabra they had!

Jin Ja-gang opened the gourd’s stopper and, as if to show off, took a sip. Then he walked backward with the gourd in hand.

He placed the gourd by the threshold of the main gate and returned. The path to the gourd was now blocked by Jin Ja-gang himself.

Naturally, everyone’s gaze was fixed on the gourd placed behind Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang stood beside the smoke-emitting jar and closed his eyes.

Quietly, yet clearly enough for everyone to hear, Jin Ja-gang spoke distinctly.

“Anyone who gets past me lives.”

The Stone Forest Gang warriors flinched.

It was a small gourd. No one knew how many could drink from it. Even if they managed to kill Jin Ja-gang and get past him, if they were too late, they might miss their chance to drink the antidote.

Attacking first carried a high risk of death, but attacking too late meant missing out on the antidote and dying anyway.

As the warriors hesitated and exchanged glances, Jin Ja-gang took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

At that moment, an overwhelming killing intent, unlike the calm demeanor he had shown before, radiated fiercely from Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

“Urgh!”

The warriors recoiled in shock.

It was a savage, beast-like gaze that sent chills down their spines.

For the past eight years.

It was the unfiltered rage Jin Ja-gang had suppressed and endured all this time.

Grit, grit.

Jin Ja-gang ground his teeth so hard it seemed they might break.

“Come at me. I won’t let a single one of you pass.”

The warriors froze.

With nothing in his hands but a fan made of tied leaves, Jin Ja-gang alone was overpowering nearly eighty warriors of the Stone Forest Gang.

Jo Yang was a dissolute and incompetent man, but he knew timing.

He had become the leader through rebellion because he knew when to act.

Jo Yang shouted.

“It’s do or die anyway! The first to get through gets priority to the antidote! Attack all at once!”

The Stone Forest Gang warriors, who had been hesitating and watching each other, gritted their teeth.

“Kill him!”

“The enemy is just one man!”

The warriors of the Stone Forest Gang, wielding swords and clubs, began charging at Jin Ja-gang.

Though many were coughing and their assault was weak, nearly twenty to thirty warriors surged toward Jin Ja-gang at once.

Jin Ja-gang had already anticipated this situation. To make the most of the small amount of arsenic poison he had left, he had created the optimal scenario himself.

He drew out the arsenic poison to his little finger and bit it to release the blood and toxic fluid, dripping it into the jar.

The smoke surged upward.

Jin Ja-gang fanned over it.

The smoke rode the wind and easily spread toward the Stone Forest Gang warriors.

Unlike cinnabar poison, which takes time to take effect and is somewhat less lethal, arsenic poison works much faster and is immediately effective. As soon as the charging Stone Forest Gang warriors inhaled the arsenic-laced smoke, their formation collapsed.

“Argh!”

“Cough, cough, hack, hack!”

The warriors, already struggling to breathe due to coughing, suffered even more from the arsenic smoke. They collapsed mid-charge, rolling on the ground in agony.

Those charging from behind tripped over each other or stumbled over the fallen, turning the situation into complete chaos.

Their movements were already sluggish from days of exposure to cinnabar smoke, making the chaos even worse.

“Uwaaak!”

“Cough, cough.”

It was utter pandemonium.

Eight years ago, in the mine shaft, Jin Ja-gang hadn’t felt the Stone Forest Gang to be this disorganized. Even within the mine, they had maintained at least a minimal level of discipline and moved accordingly.

Had they deteriorated this much just because a single leader changed and seven years had passed?

But Jin Ja-gang set aside such questions and felt not the slightest shred of pity for them.

The Stone Forest Gang, both eight years ago and now, was still a group committing atrocities. There was no need for any compassion.

“Argh!”

Exposed indiscriminately to both cinnabar and arsenic poisons, the warriors clutched their faces, oozing fluids from all seven orifices as they writhed on the ground.

In an instant, more than half of them were down. The remaining half, though not immediately dead, were too incapacitated to attack Jin Ja-gang.

Even so, one or two who were less poisoned managed to approach Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang tossed mugwort into the jar.

Sizzle.

As the mugwort burned, a pungent smoke billowed out. No matter how much the Stone Forest Gang warriors tried to glare through it, tears streamed from their eyes, making it impossible to keep them open. Unable to see, they couldn’t charge forward.

“Urgh!”

The warriors, tears streaming down their faces, flailed blindly.