Chapter 10

Jin Ja-gang thought.

He wanted to live.

No matter how little strength he had left, if he stayed like this, he would be tied up again and tortured to death. By then, he would certainly have even less energy than now.

Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth. With all his might, he planted his arms on the ground and tried to stand up.

But because he had barely used his muscles for so long, his arms gave way, and he nearly collapsed.

‘No! I can’t die here!’

At that moment, he felt something like lightning strike within his body.

From the Baihui acupoint at the crown of his head, a tiny thread-like energy emerged and extended all the way to his right arm.

That strength supported Jin Ja-gang. He was able to hold himself up without collapsing. It was truly nothing more than a thread, but even that was tremendous help for Jin Ja-gang in his current state.

For Jin Ja-gang, it was like a drowning man clutching at straws, but it was also true that hope had been born.

Jin Ja-gang consciously tried to keep drawing out that energy.

The Baihui acupoint at his crown throbbed as the thread-like energy continued to emerge and flow into his right arm.

Gradually, strength entered his right hand.

Jin Ja-gang realized this was due to the treatment Mang-ryo had performed on him earlier.

Thunk, thunk.

The sound of the cane was getting closer.

Mang-ryo would arrive soon.

Jin Ja-gang mustered his energy and used his right hand to grip the wall and stand up. With his broken leg not properly set, even standing was extraordinarily difficult.

Jin Ja-gang practically hung from the shelf and pulled down everything he could reach.

Mesh bags containing snakes, bottles with centipedes and scorpions, bamboo baskets with spiders, and bamboo tubes with toads.

After roughly placing them down, he opened some of the lids and scattered the contents in all directions.

He deliberately poured some small insects like ants near the hole and crushed them underfoot.

While removing, pouring out, and crushing the venomous creatures with his feet, Jin Ja-gang was bitten several times on his hands and feet.

These were deadly venomous creatures that could kill a person with just one bite. Jin Ja-gang started to feel numbness spreading, but he endured it. After all, he had a body that wouldn’t die from being bitten.

And the minimum time it took for the poison to take effect was about one-fifth of an hour.

That would be enough time.

If he could survive a lifetime of suffering by enduring just one-fifth of an hour of pain, that was the right thing to do.

Jin Ja-gang also scattered various plants and poisonous herbs around the room.

He hoped that with all this, Mang-ryo would think Jin Ja-gang had escaped through that hole.

No, that was Jin Ja-gang’s desperate wish—that Mang-ryo would think so.

Thunk, thunk.

The sound of the cane had almost reached the door.

But was this enough?

Suddenly, Jin Ja-gang felt a tingling in his right hand and looked down.

His hand, bitten all over by venomous creatures, was already swollen, and he could see a transparent liquid hanging from the tip of his little finger along with drops of blood.

Below that, a bamboo basket was rolling at Jin Ja-gang’s feet.

***

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Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

Mang-ryo paused.

He stopped before opening the door.

A strong fishy smell was coming from behind the door.

Normally, there was always some smell because of all the venomous creatures kept inside, but it had never been this strong.

Something was off.

Creak.

Mang-ryo carefully opened the locked door and entered.

At that moment, a gust of wind brought a strong fishy smell.

Hiss!

A venomous steel-scaled viper lunged at him with its fangs fully exposed. It was completely unexpected.

Mang-ryo was startled but managed to wrap the viper’s body around his cane and grab its head with his other hand.

Hisssss!

The angry steel-scaled viper made a threatening sound with its mouth wide open. Mang-ryo pressed both sides of the viper’s jaw to keep it from closing its mouth and looked around the room.

Why on earth was the steel-scaled viper out?

Mang-ryo’s question was quickly answered.

The opening of the mesh bag that had contained the steel-scaled viper was open and rolling on the floor. He could even see other steel-scaled vipers slowly crawling out of the mesh bag.

That wasn’t all. The room, which had been in perfect order when he left, was now completely in disarray. The creatures’ cages and mesh bags that should have been on the shelves were on the floor with their openings unfastened.

As a result, snakes were crawling on the floor, scorpions and spiders were climbing all over the walls, and insects were clinging to the ceiling.

It was obvious who had done this.

Jin Ja-gang!

Mang-ryo was so angry that his hands trembled.

“How could this b*st*rd still have the strength to move?”

He couldn’t forgive Jin Ja-gang for ruining his precious venomous creatures like this.

Mang-ryo raised his eyebrows and surveyed the room. One or two creatures might be manageable, but even for Mang-ryo, being suddenly bitten by so many venomous creatures would be difficult to detoxify. Therefore, he couldn’t carelessly enter the room.

But no matter how much he looked from the doorway, Jin Ja-gang was nowhere to be seen.

Mang-ryo gritted his teeth and shouted:

“You b*st*rd! Come out right now! After I saved your life, this is how you repay me?”

Of course, there was no way Jin Ja-gang would come out.

Mang-ryo shouted again:

“If you’re hiding and I catch you later, I won’t let you off easily!”

Still no response. The room was quiet except for the venomous creatures moving around.

“Urgh.”

It would be quite troublesome to catch all the roaming venomous creatures and put them back in their places. Moreover, since most of these creatures contained deadly poison, they would need to be caught by properly equipped people.

“Fine, you little brat. Let’s play hide and seek. When I catch you, I’ll tear off the first part of you I get my hands on.”

Mang-ryo threw the steel-scaled viper into a corner of the room and put on deerskin gloves on both hands.

He intended to go in.

After all, where could Jin Ja-gang hide? Where could he possibly hide in this room?

Mang-ryo closed the door.

Thud.

Killing intent filled Mang-ryo’s eyes as he looked around the room.

But strangely, Jin Ja-gang was nowhere to be seen.

It was just a single room. There was a stone bed, a desk on one side, and shelves on both walls. Mesh bags, broken bottles, and bamboo cages were scattered on the floor.

Mang-ryo quickly circled the room once, avoiding the moving venomous creatures, but Jin Ja-gang wasn’t there.

“Why isn’t he here? Why?”

Whoosh.

Suddenly, Mang-ryo felt a very slight breeze and the smell of rot.

Turning his head, he saw a hole in the opposite side of the floor with its cover slightly open. Wind was blowing in from there. It was a hole used for disposing of garbage, extending all the way to the outside.

The hole was extremely narrow, not big enough for a person to enter.

“Could it be…?”

But there’s always a “what if.”

Mang-ryo became suspicious. He thought Jin Ja-gang might have escaped through that hole.

‘How small was Jin Ja-gang?’

That stubborn child might have dislocated his shoulders to escape.

When Mang-ryo rushed over to check, he saw crushed venomous creatures near the cover. It definitely looked like someone had squeezed through there.

Mang-ryo quickly knelt down. He pushed the cover to check inside.

At that moment.

Something that had been caught on the cover flew toward Mang-ryo’s eye.

Ting!

Mang-ryo was startled and turned his body sideways to dodge. Something sharp grazed his face.

Looking at what it was, it was none other than a bamboo splinter. It seemed the bamboo splinter had been stuck between the cover and the hole and was now dislodged.

“What is this!”

Mang-ryo touched below his left eye.

Blood stained his fingers.

It wasn’t Mang-ryo’s blood.

He had scratched below his eye while dodging, but not enough to draw blood.

Then it must be Jin Ja-gang’s blood.

An ominous feeling came over him.

Could this really be a coincidence?

But suddenly, he felt a stinging sensation below his eye. The vision on the injured side was becoming blurry.

Poison.

It was poison.

Mang-ryo was terrified.

“This little b*st*rd!”

When had he applied poison to the bamboo splinter?

Just blood alone couldn’t cause poisoning!

But the fact was that he had been poisoned.

Mang-ryo grew desperate.

Unfortunately, he had just depleted most of his internal energy when opening Jin Ja-gang’s energy channels. It would be difficult to expel the poison with internal energy.

Mang-ryo pressed the acupoints on his face, but due to his lack of internal energy, he couldn’t even properly seal the points. It only slightly delayed the poison from spreading through his energy channels.

Cold sweat poured down his face. His head was spinning, and his eyes were stinging. They even itched.

These weren’t symptoms of just one type of poison.

“Urgh… what kind of poison could cause this…”

Mang-ryo groaned in pain.

To make matters worse, a scorpion was crawling up his cane.

“Kuk!”

Mang-ryo swung his cane to throw off the scorpion. The scorpion hit the wall and was crushed.

The released venomous creatures in the room were approaching him. With almost no internal energy, he couldn’t respond properly. Mang-ryo swung his cane and kicked to drive away or kill the venomous creatures.

They were precious venomous creatures, but not more precious than his own life. And they were only valuable if he was alive.

The eye on the injured side was already starting to swell and he couldn’t see well. His eyeball was stinging.

There was no time to waste. He wasn’t someone with an unusual constitution like Jin Ja-gang. He needed to get out of this room quickly.

“You b*st*rd, just wait! I’ll chase you to the ends of hell and tear you limb from limb!”

Mang-ryo, overcome with rage, cursed as he covered his eye and ran for the door.

“Is anyone there!”

Mang-ryo burst through the door, almost kicking it open, and shouted as he rushed outside.

In his haste, he misplaced his cane and rolled on the ground several times. Then he began to vomit violently.

“Ueek! Uek!”

Blood mixed with his vomit. After vomiting for quite some time, expelling even his stomach acid, Mang-ryo gasped for breath.

His eye felt like it was rotting, and his head felt like it was about to burst.

Mang-ryo searched his pockets for an antidote. Since he wasn’t sure what kind of poison it was, it took time to find and take various antidotes based on his symptoms.

Suddenly, his lower abdomen felt tight. Absurdly, in this situation, he felt strength gathering in his lower region.

Mang-ryo’s mind cleared instantly.

‘So the main poison was indeed from the twin-spotted paradise widow spider!’

There’s no complete antidote for the twin-spotted paradise widow spider. It’s such a deadly poison. But the symptoms can be somewhat alleviated with an antidote for the widow spider family.

Mang-ryo hurriedly searched his pockets and took out an antidote for the widow spider. He poured the powder, wrapped in oil-soaked paper, into his mouth and sprinkled the rest on the wound below his eye.

The pain subsided a little.

This was only possible because the amount of poison that entered through the wound was not substantial.

He could finally breathe again.

At that moment.

Suddenly, Mang-ryo recalled something from long ago.

“Come to think of it, that cave back then…?”

The cave where Son Wi-hak had been found dead.

Still not trusting the situation, Mang-ryo had ordered people to guard the front of that cave for several days. It was only after hearing that the cave had become filled with corpse poison, making it impossible for anyone to enter, that he allowed them to withdraw.

But Jin Ja-gang was never found anywhere else.

Despite setting up a perimeter everywhere and searching all possible hiding places with the help of Gwak-o, who had betrayed Hundred Flower Valley.

Yet, Jin Ja-gang had finally escaped from there and gone all the way to the Martial Arts Alliance’s Yunnan Branch, complicating matters.

How exactly had Jin Ja-gang escaped from there? Where had he been hiding?

At the time, Mang-ryo had thought the guards had been distracted and lost him, but now he realized it might not have been the case.

Back then, he didn’t know that Jin Ja-gang had a body resistant to poison.

If Jin Ja-gang had been resistant to poison back then, just as he was now, that would change everything.

Mang-ryo felt a chill run down his spine.