Chapter 159

Recently, Jin Ja-gang had been changing his own bandages, so neither Bian Bu nor Soso had seen Jin Ja-gang’s condition. They had only thought he was getting better since there wasn’t as much blood or pus seeping through as before.

However, when Jin Ja-gang unwrapped the bandages from his face, Bian Bu and Soso couldn’t close their mouths.

“Huh? What… hmm.”

When Jin Ja-gang also unwrapped the bandages from his upper body, Bian Bu and Soso’s surprise became even greater.

Jin Ja-gang’s face and right side, where blood vessels had burst, had already healed long ago, and even the places where skin had peeled off from burns had mended. Only red spots here and there remained to indicate that there had been wounds.

“What… what is this…”

There wasn’t a single ugly, distorted scar from the burns. The melted flesh had regenerated cleanly. As if nothing had ever happened, only reddish traces and some scabs remained on the wounds. Even the scabs fell off immediately when Jin Ja-gang rubbed them with his hand.

“You rolled around in such severe fire, yet this is all that’s left?”

When he had arrived, pus had been flowing from his entire body. But looking at the completely healed parts now, his skin even had a lustrous glow!

No, rather, as new flesh had grown, it had become much more transparent and smoother than when Bian Bu had first met him.

Only the chest wound cut by sword energy still hadn’t fully healed. Blood was visible. Looking at the scab that was half-attached and dangling, it seemed like the scab would form but then the wound would open again.

“Sword energy is truly frightening. It seems it will take some time to heal.”

Jin Ja-gang said while pressing the wound on his chest with his hand.

“If I wrap the chest with bandages and cover it with clothes, it won’t be visible.”

Jin Ja-gang tried wrapping a hood around his head. After hiding his short hair, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly strange except for the red spots on his face.

“Ah… ah.”

Soso’s cheeks turned red as she looked at Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang’s face, with the ugly wounds gone, was like that of a young nobleman who had grown up without knowing hardship. Though it might not suit a man, it was pretty enough to make one think so.

Bian Bu was about to speak but looked back and forth between Soso and Jin Ja-gang. Then he said one thing.

“You’ll probably catch people’s attention.”

“Won’t this level be acceptable?”

“I don’t know about men, but you’ll definitely catch young ladies’ eyes.”

“What?”

Bian Bu pointed at Soso with the tip of his beard.

Soso’s face became even redder. Soso covered her face with her hands and ran outside.

When Jin Ja-gang remained still, not knowing what to say, Bian Bu shrugged his shoulders.

“At least when you leave, there will be one person who will be sad. Let me tell you, it’s not me. I still can’t drink a cup of water comfortably these days.”

* * *

Jin Ja-gang could now move about daily life with almost no difficulty.

However, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t leave immediately.

Because Soso desperately held him back.

Soso gestured with her hands and feet, begging him to stay just a few more days. It was almost at the level of pleading.

“She seems to want to do something for you.”

Bian Bu seemed to know but didn’t tell him. Jin Ja-gang had also somewhat noticed recently that Soso was doing something.

So Jin Ja-gang decided to stay a little longer.

It wasn’t Jin Ja-gang’s nature to stay still when he was capable of moving. However, since he couldn’t carelessly go far and catch people’s attention, Jin Ja-gang climbed the mountain right behind the manor.

Most of what Jin Ja-gang needed was in nature.

Mistletoe, styrax tree, oleander…

All plants, large or small, contain poison. Some plants have enough poison in a single root to kill a person, while others have only enough poison to cause a slight tickle.

However, regardless of which type, the story changes when the concentration of that poison becomes dense.

Until now, Jin Ja-gang had used the method of chewing and eating poisonous plants to extract only the poison and concentrate it in his dantian. The poison Jin Ja-gang created this way had an incredibly dense concentration. It was almost pure poison itself.

Naturally, it had much more powerful effects than the artificial methods of extracting poison used by most poison sects.

However, the disadvantage was that he still had to consume a sufficient amount of poisonous plants anyway. It made his stomach full and his jaw hurt.

“Hmm…”

Jin Ja-gang looked around the desolate mountain.

Winter was already approaching. Most of the grasses were so withered and twisted that their forms were hard to recognize, or only roots remained in the soil.

“I’ll have to give up on getting poison from flowers and fruits.”

Jin Ja-gang wandered around the mountain, digging soil in various places to check the roots.

To achieve proper effects, it was best to consume as much of the same type of poisonous plant as possible.

Then he discovered a colony of false hellebore.

“False hellebore…”

Jin Ja-gang dug up one false hellebore root. Thanks to the dry winter weather, the false hellebore was somewhat dried.

He brushed off the soil from the false hellebore and chewed it. It was spicy and bitter. In such cases, the toxicity often had cold properties.

False hellebore caused side effects such as vomiting, weakness, sweating, and decreased consciousness, but when the amount was properly controlled, it had great therapeutic effects on lung diseases or seizure symptoms.

However, even after eating it and waiting for a while, there was no particular reaction.

His stomach became a little uncomfortable, but considering the toxicity of false hellebore, which was also used as an insecticide to repel pests, this was somewhat strange. Even considering Jin Ja-gang’s constitution where poison manifested quickly, having no reaction like this was peculiar.

Jin Ja-gang wondered why and dug up and ate several more false hellebore roots. Though the cold properties should have made his body cold, he actually felt feverish.

“Ah.”

Only after thinking for a long time did Jin Ja-gang recall why this was happening.

There was something to consider when using false hellebore as medicine.

False hellebore, which resembles scallion roots, is detoxified by hogfennel vegetables, realgar, onions, and pork fat.

The Kunlun Sulfur Jade Poison that Jin Ja-gang had used long ago contained a lot of mineral realgar. The energy of the mineral realgar absorbed at that time had become the foundation of Jin Ja-gang’s current constitution. The regeneration of skin and quick healing of wounds were also thanks to this.

Therefore, while chewing and digesting false hellebore, it was naturally neutralized and detoxified within his body.

“This is troublesome.”

This way, no matter how much false hellebore he ate, it would be difficult to accumulate false hellebore poison in his dantian.

However, it was also difficult to find poison as good as false hellebore in winter.

Jin Ja-gang thought of methods while digging up false hellebore roots.

* * *

Jin Ja-gang made the most of his spare time.

In the mornings, he went early to dig false hellebore roots, and in the afternoons, he asked Bian Bu to teach him about medicinal alcohol and the human body.

“Do you want to learn dark path medicine now? Hmph. This is dark path medicine, so it’ll be somewhat different from orthodox medicine.”

Bian Bu scolded Jin Ja-gang while teaching him everything he could.

Originally, Jin Ja-gang had received advanced transmissions from the Medicine Sect in the mine shafts. So he knew the theories of superior medicine but was very lacking in fundamentals.

Thanks to this, Jin Ja-gang was able to properly learn about the blood channels of the human body through this opportunity.

He knew the blood channels needed for pressure point techniques using the Medicine Sect’s secret methods, but he didn’t really know about the overall blood channels and their flow. It was also a miracle that he had opened his right-side blood channels in such a state.

Bian Bu was often bewildered while teaching.

“No, you know the difficult stuff but don’t know this?”

“Haha.”

Each time, Jin Ja-gang could only deflect with laughter.

Bian Bu’s specialty was alchemy – the art of preparing medicines. Bian Bu taught enthusiastically, at least when it came to alchemy.

Of course, starting from the basics.

In alchemy, internal elixir meant creating a dantian inside the body, while external elixir meant artificially refining and consuming plants and minerals. In a way, Jin Ja-gang had been practicing rudimentary external alchemy until now.

Once he began to understand the basics, Jin Ja-gang’s learning speed became incredibly fast. He could properly organize in his mind the theories he had vaguely known. He was also able to actually perform the Medicine Sect’s secret alchemy methods that he had received but hadn’t understood.

Each day that passed, he made progress equivalent to someone who had studied for several months.

Bian Bu even thought of taking Jin Ja-gang as his disciple.

Of course, there were various constraints to actually doing so.

Jin Ja-gang was too great an existence for Bian Bu to take as a disciple.

As he went to the mountains daily to dig false hellebore, at some point Soso quietly began following along. Soso helped Jin Ja-gang with the work of digging false hellebore roots.

Jin Ja-gang was skilled in poison techniques, but he didn’t have the ability to find false hellebore roots buried in the ground. With Soso’s help, the work of finding and digging false hellebore roots instantly became twice as fast.

Jin Ja-gang wasn’t particularly talkative either, and Soso couldn’t speak.

Therefore, even while digging false hellebore together, there was almost no conversation.

Still, Soso didn’t mind, and Jin Ja-gang didn’t feel much burden either.

When he bent his waist to dig false hellebore roots and raised his head, his eyes would meet with Soso, who was looking at him with a sweat-soaked face. It was a very quiet and peaceful feeling of daily life.

Throb.

When Jin Ja-gang felt an emotion he had once experienced, one side of his chest ached.

The preciousness of daily life that he had tried to stay as far away from as possible, that he thought would never exist again, shook Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang took a deep breath. It was to remind himself of his situation.

The situation Jin Ja-gang now faced had become much more complex than before, and revenge had become that much more difficult.

The temptation to give up existed even at this very moment.

But Jin Ja-gang had to move forward.

Even if he couldn’t complete his revenge, this wasn’t the place where Jin Ja-gang should die.

On the blood-soaked, painful path of blood.

Or at its end.

That was the place where Jin Ja-gang would finally breathe his last and kneel.

Jin Ja-gang stuffed a handful of false hellebore roots in his mouth and chewed to avoid thinking other thoughts.

Recently, while learning alchemy and blood channels from Bian Bu, a method had occurred to him.

If he consumed poisonous plants orally, including false hellebore roots, and absorbed the poison in the stomach, there would be loss of poison in that process. False hellebore was even neutralized.

But what if he accepted the poison directly through the blood channels in his mouth rather than the stomach?

He could prevent both the loss of poison and fullness. Less jaw pain would be an additional benefit.

Jin Ja-gang chewed a lot of false hellebore roots and held the saliva and poison in his mouth. Then he curled his tongue tip and pressed it to the roof of his mouth.

This way, the Xuanying point under the tongue would open, connect with the Tiandi point, and open the Ren meridian. He planned to receive poison through the Xuanying point and send it directly to his dantian through the Ren meridian.

Since it was his first time, it wasn’t easy. Jin Ja-gang slightly opened his mouth to spit out unnecessary turbid energy other than poison, and while swallowing saliva, he consciously visualized inhaling poison into the Xuanying point under his tongue.

However, no matter how many times he practiced, it didn’t work easily. Even though his right-side blood channels had opened, most of Jin Ja-gang’s other blood channels were still blocked.

Jin Ja-gang thought for a moment, then took out a needle and placed it under his tongue. He felt around to find the Jinjin point on the left and the Yuye point on the right of the Xuanying point. He planned to pierce these two points to draw blood and open the blood channels.

When dealing with blood channels, one follows the order of first yang then yin. This means treating yang first and yin later.

Also, since the human body is left yang right yin, Jin Ja-gang first pierced the yang blood channel, the left Jinjin point, with a needle to draw blood. Then he also wounded the right Yuye point.

On the left side, due to blocked blood channels, an enormous amount of dark, blackish stagnant blood poured out, while on the right side, some stagnant blood came out briefly before quickly changing to bright red blood.

This was part of the Medicine Sect’s methods that Jin Ja-gang had learned long ago in the mine shafts. At that time, he hadn’t understood it properly, but after learning the basics, he was able to apply it to alchemy.

When he opened the blood channels of Jinjin and Yuye, the breathing passage of the Xuanying point opened much wider.

Jin Ja-gang breathed in and out according to breathing techniques and accepted the poison.

He sensed that some of the poison went directly to his dantian through the Xuanying point via the Ren meridian.

“I did it!”

However, since it was such a small amount, he couldn’t hold it in his dantian and it spread from his dantian throughout his entire body.

Thump!

Suddenly his heart beat loudly.