Chapter 126

“You already used poison?”

Zhuge Yan mocked Jin Ja-gang.

“What boasting. You who couldn’t even see one second of my soft sword claim you poisoned me? You expect me to believe that?”

Jin Ja-gang did not answer.

Though she said she couldn’t believe it, Zhuge Yan suddenly became anxious.

Hadn’t it been just moments ago that she was already poisoned by pinellia and taffy and felt uncomfortable in her stomach!

To find hidden poison energy that wasn’t revealed, she would need to relax her body and spread internal energy throughout her limbs and body to sense it. However, she couldn’t do so in a completely defenseless state while fighting.

Jin Ja-gang silently staring at her seemed like he was waiting for exactly that moment, so Zhuge Yan couldn’t carelessly release her energy.

But suddenly.

Drip.

A nosebleed flowed down from Zhuge Yan’s nose.

“Huh?”

Zhuge Yan was visibly flustered.

She hastily circulated part of her internal energy within her body to try to resist the poison, but the situation worsened. The poison rose further, making her face lose color and her eye area turn bluish.

“When, when!”

She had been drawing up tremendous internal energy from long before, yet she was poisoned without any sign!

Zhuge Yan looked at Jin Ja-gang in surprise.

Jin Ja-gang said nothing either way, but inwardly felt somewhat complicated.

‘As expected.’

It was as he had anticipated.

Though he had told Zhuge Yan that he had poisoned her, in fact this was not Jin Ja-gang’s doing.

Just moments ago, even though Jin Ja-gang had done nothing at all, the warriors spat blood and retreated while trying to attack Jin Ja-gang. Now most of them had already collapsed.

The effects from pinellia and taffy would have long since disappeared.

No, from the beginning, pinellia and taffy couldn’t produce such severe symptoms. Pinellia and taffy literally only had effects that would make one uncomfortable.

Then what would be the reason the Zhuge family warriors spat blood and collapsed?

That was… someone other than Jin Ja-gang had acted against the Zhuge family warriors.

* * *

Somewhere in Yunnan.

Mang Ryo sat in a pavilion in the back garden, rolling a silver-plated pill back and forth on his palm.

It was a Poison Avoidance Pill that Zhuge Yan and Shin Yung’s group had held in their mouths.

Mang Ryo asked.

“It’s exactly the same as last time, so what’s different this time?”

The masked person standing below the pavilion answered.

“The internal ingredients have been changed. Therefore, this time’s version has the effect of making poison stick tenaciously inside the body the more one uses internal energy. Once hemoptysis begins, they cannot stop vomiting blood until their lungs fill with blood and they die.”

“The outer part is still made as a poison avoidance medicine?”

“That’s correct. When held in the mouth, it produces the effects of a powerful poison avoidance medicine, then as the outer layer dissolves in saliva, the real poison inside appears. Even if cut in half to examine, the inside looks the same as the outside.”

Mang Ryo split the pill in half to look. As the masked person said, the inside was no different from the outside.

“If the outside is poison avoidance medicine but there’s poison inside, don’t they affect each other and reduce effectiveness?”

“That secret technique is the core of this Five Fall Death Pill, as the elder said. The poison avoidance medicine repels other poisons but doesn’t conflict with the inner poison, and rather the two harmonize together to create even stronger toxicity.”

“Kekeke! I see. Five Fall Death Pill…”

“It means poison that harms all five organs – liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.”

“But this time you’ve coated the outside with silver foil.”

“With silver foil attached, it would be even harder to expect that there’s poison inside.”

“Hey, if you’re going to attach something, you should attach gold foil like other pills. Why deliberately use silver foil to stand out? Such trivial things can actually arouse suspicion.”

“I’ll convey that message.”

“No, no, there’s no need for that. Well, it’s just my small opinion. If I speak too sharply, I might fall out of the elder’s favor.”

Mang Ryo crumbled the pill and threw it into the pond beside the pavilion. The carp, thinking it was food, swarmed over and ate the pill.

Not long after, dozens of carp in the pond floated to the surface belly-up.

Mang Ryo frowned.

“The reaction is a bit slower than expected? Could the toxicity be declining?”

“It’s still in the research stage, so the effects are somewhat unstable, but they’ll gradually improve. It’s perfect for testing on those Zhuge family people.”

“Even so, the effects need to be certain. If things go wrong, cleanup becomes difficult. My position becomes awkward too.”

“Preparations for contingencies are in place. Don’t worry too much.”

“I understand.”

Mang Ryo chuckled while looking at the dead carp.

“Well. Then… I’ll trust that the effects will gradually improve. What’s important is quantity.”

No matter how good the toxicity, if only one or two could be made, there would be no utility value.

“As mentioned, we’re changing materials to enable mass production. Once we improve only the somewhat insufficient toxicity, quantity won’t be a problem.”

“I understand. I was being too meddlesome. Please give my regards to the elder.”

“Understood. Then.”

The masked person bowed lightly and retreated backward before disappearing.

“Now is it finally time to see an interesting spectacle?”

Mang Ryo, who had been muttering, suddenly stood up from his seat.

“If I had known this would happen, I should have given him at least one elixir! Blood Path Piercing alone is somewhat lacking, isn’t it? Ah, I really acted too petty. Tsk tsk.”

But contrary to his self-reproaching voice, his face was smiling with excitement.

“No, this much help was enough. People need self-reliance to become great figures!”

* * *

“I’ll kill you!”

Zhuge Yan ground her teeth and drew up all her internal energy to charge at Jin Ja-gang.

Clatter clatter clack!

The soft sword split into dozens of strands, blooming a flower of blades across Zhuge Yan’s front. Earlier it had felt like she was toying with Jin Ja-gang, but this time each blade was thickly imbued with killing intent.

Jin Ja-gang had experienced Zhuge Yan’s soft sword just moments before.

Even when viewed with his right eye infused with internal energy, it was so fast that the blades appeared as flashes. Actually, even if he could see properly, Jin Ja-gang’s body movements absolutely couldn’t keep up with the soft sword’s speed.

So he understood.

The reason Wishful Fairy Maiden Dan Ryeong-gyeong had taught him Parting Hand Arrow Shot.

Since he absolutely couldn’t attack Zhuge Yan within the soft sword’s effective range, he had no choice but to attack from outside that distance.

Jin Ja-gang drew in energy with one breath and generated internal energy. One stream of internal energy flowed rapidly through his meridians. The hardened fragments of the Flower Essence Pure Heart Pill that had been sleeping in his meridians were swept along and spun together, gradually becoming a larger mass.

Following the wide-open meridians of his right side, they began absorbing fragments like a growing snowball to increase in size.

Thud, thud.

Weakened meridians here and there made rupturing sounds, unable to withstand the fierce flow. It was like a savage beast running wild without reins.

Jin Ja-gang opened his dantian and released half a drop of poison energy. The poison energy that could move according to Jin Ja-gang’s will became reins that gathered the internal energy and fragments.

Now the beast began running according to Jin Ja-gang’s will.

Jin Ja-gang turned the reins to guide the beast according to Parting Hand Arrow Shot’s internal energy operation method.

He suddenly blocked the path of the spinning internal energy, then released it in an instant.

Finger wind shot out diagonally, penetrating through the fluttering soft sword.

Zhuge Yan’s eyes widened.

Flying Wing Sword was a soft sword technique that extended the right arm to its maximum and used the soft sword like a long whip. It could secure an attack distance two chi longer than ordinary sword techniques.

But the moment Jin Ja-gang lowered his body and raised his hand, his hand movements became invisible, hidden by his own shoulder. Then finger wind suddenly pierced through from a blind spot.

Thwack!

The finger wind hit the Jiquan acupoint in Zhuge Yan’s right armpit. Poison energy instantly penetrated and sensation in her arm disappeared.

“Kugh! How, how…!”

The only blind spot of Flying Wing Sword, which required extending the shoulder forward to gain two chi of attack distance. How did the opponent know about this!

As Zhuge Yan hesitated mid-attack, Jin Ja-gang picked up a sword the warriors had dropped.

He tried to circulate another breath of internal energy within his body, but the pain was too severe to properly generate it. His right side felt like it was on fire, with parts of his meridians damaged.

However, he couldn’t miss the opportunity to attack.

Bosam Gate’s blade technique, Great Skull Tiger Energy!

Jin Ja-gang gathered his remaining strength and swung the sword. Zhuge Yan also gritted her teeth and deployed Flying Wing Sword once more.

Clang clang clang!

The soft sword and Jin Ja-gang’s blade clashed, producing intense sparks. Due to the difference in internal energy depth and application, Zhuge Yan’s soft sword remained intact while Jin Ja-gang’s blade became jagged like a saw on both sides and even had its tip cut off.

Jin Ja-gang lost his grip on the sword and staggered backward. The vibration was so severe that his palm was torn.

But Zhuge Yan also dropped her soft sword due to her paralyzed arm. As a result of moving recklessly while poisoned, Zhuge Yan received considerable shock.

“Uwak!”

Zhuge Yan vomited blood. Zhuge Yan desperately called for Shin Yung.

“Shin Yung!”

Shin Yung leaped in front of Zhuge Yan to block Jin Ja-gang’s path.

However, even Shin Yung’s complexion wasn’t good.

“Shin Yung! You’re poisoned too!”

“Yes.”

Zhuge Yan ground her teeth and cried out.

“This is impossible! How could we lose to someone like this? Don’t the Poison Avoidance Pills work either? Uwook!”

While Shin Yung blocked for her, Zhuge Yan drew up her internal energy to its maximum to expel the poison. However, her true energy became sticky and tangled, not circulating properly and only making the toxicity worse.

On top of that, the poison from the finger wind Jin Ja-gang had shot added to the pinellia toxicity.

“Poison that gets worse when you use internal energy…!”

Zhuge Yan grabbed Shin Yung’s back and vomited blood even more severely.

Retch, retch.

The bright red blood spewing from her mouth was mixed with blue energy.

An extreme deadly poison she had never experienced before.

Zhuge Yan groaned and fell to her knees.

Jin Ja-gang, covered in blood and sweat, stared at Shin Yung.

Shin Yung hastily took out a wooden case from his chest and fed the pill inside to Zhuge Yan.

Then he turned around, but unexpectedly did not draw his sword.

When Jin Ja-gang raised his chipped blade, he instead extended his bare palm forward.

“Wait.”

“What do you mean?”

“Could you not let me and the young lady go as we are?”

It was a proposal that was even bewildering to Jin Ja-gang.

“You’re saying you’ll give up on me and return?”

“That’s right.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My top priority is preserving the young lady’s life, not killing you.”

“But if my condition had been worse than now, you would have killed me.”

“I won’t deny it.”

“Should I leave future troubles by letting you live?”

“We’re not the only ones targeting you. Before long, many more will come looking for you. I don’t see any reason to bear the trouble and damage of killing us. Especially if you don’t want to make an enemy of the Zhuge family.”

The last words touched Jin Ja-gang’s nerves. Jin Ja-gang smiled bitterly at Shin Yung’s words.

“You try to kill me first, then say your family will take revenge if you die?”

No, wait?

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes widened dramatically.

Goosebumps rose on his spine.

He realized something from Shin Yung’s words that he hadn’t thought of.

If these people died, the Zhuge family would seek revenge!