Chapter 18

The time it takes for blood to circulate through the body is approximately the duration of ten breaths.

‘Four breaths!’

That meant the poison had nearly reached his heart.

With such a deadly poison, the moment it spread to his heart, it would be as good as death.

Miao Weng quickly searched his pockets and took out a Clear Heart Pill, placing it under his tongue. Then he rapidly pressed the acupoint near his heart with his finger.

Thump!

His heart stopped instantly. With blood circulation halted, the progression of the poison also stopped.

When the heart stops, a person doesn’t die immediately. He could still move for about half a quarter-hour.

With the Clear Heart Pill in his mouth, in the worst case, his heart might beat once more even after stopping. At that moment, he could revive his heart.

The time gained by all this was just a quarter-hour.

Within that quarter-hour, he needed to extract an antidote from that damned child.

Miao Weng immediately rushed toward Jin Ja-gang.

“Give me the antidote!”

But Jin Ja-gang had no such thing as an antidote.

Jin Ja-gang rolled away from Miao Weng, who was charging at him with foam at his mouth. Miao Weng’s hand struck the ground where Jin Ja-gang had been lying.

Thwack.

A cloud of dirt rose high into the air.

Miao Weng staggered from the impact.

“Urgh.”

Jin Ja-gang desperately got to his feet and ran. Miao Weng summoned his internal energy and pursued.

Thick, crisscrossing trees blocked Jin Ja-gang’s path. He slid under them by lowering his body.

Above, Miao Weng’s crimson Bloody Hand technique shattered the trees, tearing them apart like threads.

“You slippery eel!”

Miao Weng burst with anger as he raised his hand again.

With his blood not flowing, one hand too swollen to use, and his body somewhat poisoned, his movements had become sluggish.

Growing desperate, Miao Weng lost all focus. His time was running out, and Jin Ja-gang was escaping.

Miao Weng pursued Jin Ja-gang like a madman.

Jin Ja-gang also ran frantically. Limping on one leg, he couldn’t outpace his pursuer.

As he fled, Jin Ja-gang scanned his surroundings.

‘I need something!’

He regretted not anticipating this situation. At the very least, he should have planned an escape route.

‘Think, Jin Ja-gang. Think. Or die!’

He could hear Miao Weng’s harsh breathing right behind him. It felt as if hot breath was touching the nape of his neck.

Jin Ja-gang frantically rubbed his body to peel off scabs. He rolled these scabs into a ball and threw them forcefully to the side.

He had almost told Miao Weng it was the antidote, but his silence actually confused Miao Weng more.

Why else would someone running for his life suddenly throw a black pill-like object to the side?

Miao Weng’s eyes lit up. It seemed like the boy would rather die than give him the antidote.

“You vicious mongrel spawn!”

Miao Weng cursed as he chased after the pill that had fallen into the bushes.

The killing intent that had been closing in on Jin Ja-gang’s nape suddenly diverted to the side.

Jin Ja-gang saw Miao Weng leaping to catch the scrap of scabs he had thrown.

The crisis was momentarily averted, but the problem wasn’t solved. As Jin Ja-gang looked around, he spotted slender stems with yellow flowers blooming abundantly.

‘Buttercups!’

Buttercups are ranunculus plants.

The sap of buttercups causes blisters on the skin and inflammation in the eyes. Jin Ja-gang had known they were used medicinally but hadn’t known about their toxicity until Mang-ryo had mentioned it.

Small amounts of sap would cause only temporary poisoning, but in the current situation, even that could buy precious time.

Jin Ja-gang tore off as many buttercups as he could and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing them. Meanwhile, Miao Weng realized he’d been tricked and leaped toward Jin Ja-gang with great fury.

Kicking off tree trunks, he soared above Jin Ja-gang in an instant.

“I’ll kill you!”

Jin Ja-gang stood straight, looking directly at Miao Weng as he descended from the air. One of Miao Weng’s arms was so swollen he couldn’t lift it, while the other was raised high.

His hand was so red it appeared almost black. This was because his internal energy was concentrated to the extreme.

If that red hand struck down, Jin Ja-gang’s head would be crushed like a watermelon. However, Miao Weng didn’t do this. He still hadn’t obtained an antidote.

Though he wanted nothing more than to kill Jin Ja-gang immediately, he couldn’t take the chance.

Boom!

Unable to crush Jin Ja-gang’s head, Miao Weng jumped to the side and grabbed Jin Ja-gang’s shoulder.

For some reason, acupressure didn’t work on him, so Miao Weng planned to twist his limbs and search for the antidote.

But at that moment, Miao Weng’s vision went black. His consciousness grew distant, and his body stiffened. Blood vessels bulged on his neck and face as if someone were strangling him.

Without blood circulation, his breath was on the verge of stopping.

“Grrk.”

Miao Weng used his tongue to push out the Clear Heart Pill from under his tongue and chewed it. His stiffened body loosened, buying him a little more time.

‘If I don’t get the antidote quickly…!’

When his vision returned, Miao Weng saw Jin Ja-gang’s swollen cheeks before him. Jin Ja-gang spat the chewed buttercup fragments and saliva directly into Miao Weng’s face.

“Pfft!”

Caught off guard, Miao Weng got buttercup sap in his eyes.

His eyes stung so badly he could barely open them.

Concentrating his internal energy on his eyes, he forced them open. Objects appeared shaking and distorted.

He couldn’t find Jin Ja-gang anywhere.

“…You b*st*rd!”

His voice was already so hoarse he could barely speak. At this point, he would have to revive his heart first, even if it meant the poisoning would intensify.

“Wait… you… I’ll… kill you.”

Miao Weng gritted his teeth. He concentrated what little internal energy remained in his fingers. He tried to press the acupoint near his heart to make it beat again.

But the arm he needed to press the acupoint with grew heavy and drooped.

“Ugh!”

Something was clinging to his arm.

It was Jin Ja-gang. He was clinging to Miao Weng’s arm like a cicada.

Though not heavy, it made pressing the acupoint accurately difficult.

“Urgh! Let, let go!”

Normally, he would have shaken Jin Ja-gang off with a sneer. But now the situation was different.

Jin Ja-gang was also desperate. He had just seen Miao Weng stop his own heart… and remembered what Mang-ryo had taught him about poison.

The time it takes for poison to circulate through the body equals the time it takes to breathe ten times. Once the poison reaches the heart, it spreads throughout the body, so you must never let the poison reach the heart.

That’s why poison should be used secretly, without the victim even knowing they’ve been poisoned. Mang-ryo had given this advice, though not intended as such.

Of course, Mang-ryo had tested his theory on Jin Ja-gang’s body. The poison failed to circulate properly with his blood, ultimately failing.

Knowing this, Jin Ja-gang had to desperately prevent Miao Weng from reviving his heart.

Miao Weng’s body continued to stiffen. He had only enough strength left for one final attempt to revive his heart.

And Jin Ja-gang was interfering with that!

“You… you…”

Miao Weng’s consciousness continued to fade. Whatever had gotten into his eyes had made his vision completely blurry.

Now Miao Weng began to plead.

“Ple… ease…”

Perhaps because of his desperate plea? The strength of Jin Ja-gang gripping his arm seemed to weaken.

Miao Weng’s mind suddenly cleared, and he gritted his teeth.

‘Once my heart beats again. I’ll pluck this brat’s fingers and toes one by one until he can neither live nor die…’

Suddenly, something gritty filled his mouth.

‘Huh…?’

Tasteless and rough—it was dirt.

‘Why?’

Miao Weng hadn’t realized that he had collapsed face-down on the ground. He also didn’t know that Jin Ja-gang had let go of his arm long ago.

It wasn’t that he was free because Jin Ja-gang had released him; he had already lost all sensation.

‘Why…’

The light of life slowly faded from Miao Weng’s eyes.

Jin Ja-gang checked to make sure Miao Weng’s breath had completely stopped.

His legs were trembling.

But he forced himself to move and hide. From his hiding place, he also watched the guard post. Either because of the distance or because the commotion hadn’t been detected yet, there was no unusual movement.

The surrounding area was completely disheveled, and anyone who came nearby would immediately notice something was wrong.

Jin Ja-gang quickly covered Miao Weng’s corpse with branches and fallen leaves. Even if it were discovered, at least it wouldn’t be immediate.

Then he quickly left the area.

“Huff, huff.”

More than guilt about killing someone, he felt self-reproach for falling into a trap and anxiety about what lay ahead.

Jin Ja-gang pushed through the forest for quite some time until he found a stream and washed his face.

Perhaps because it was a hot spring area, the water was warm.

His mind cleared. Looking at his reflection in the water, he saw his face was grotesque with scabs he hadn’t removed, while the parts where scabs had peeled off were unnaturally white.

Jin Ja-gang gathered soil from around him and rubbed it on his face. He also smeared dirt all over his head to make himself look dirty. It seemed pointless to wash his face only to dirty it again, but he needed to disguise himself.

Survival was more important to Jin Ja-gang.

Who could have set this trap for him? Jin Ja-gang wondered.

The answer came quickly.

‘Mang-ryo!’

It was terrifying to think that Mang-ryo was still hunting him.

He wanted revenge against Mang-ryo.

But that was something he couldn’t do. Even now, he had only killed his opponent and survived through sheer luck.

Jin Ja-gang stood up and looked around. Unconsciously, he had returned to a familiar path. Just a little further uphill was the Mixed Spring Ground.

‘Should I hold out a bit longer?’

But he couldn’t stay there forever. Once they discovered he was alive, they might search everywhere until they found him.

‘No. I need to move now.’

If he was going to do something, it had to be now. Once the corpse was discovered, it would become even more difficult to do anything.

Jin Ja-gang had no choice but to make a decision.

‘I have to enter the Extreme Poison Sect.’

He had to pass through the Extreme Poison Sect to escape down the mountain anyway.

And he still had unfinished business there.

Not just revenge against Mang-ryo, but also against the traitor who betrayed Hundred Flower Valley…

‘I need to think of a way to get in.’

He remembered how the Extreme Poison Sect warriors had paid no attention to the carts when he was brought up on Gwak-o’s cart.

Jin Ja-gang thought for a moment, then started walking in the direction of the Mixed Spring Ground.

His mind was working faster than ever before.

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

At the cliff above the Mixed Spring Ground where waste was dumped.

Jin Ja-gang hid in the bushes and waited.

Having hurried, it was still afternoon, not yet evening.

‘Then…’

Looking at the nearby bushes, he saw the buttercups that had saved him earlier. Jin Ja-gang picked and chewed them.

Crunch, crunch.

While chewing the buttercups, Jin Ja-gang roughly calculated the time by looking at the sun.

If his thinking was correct, carts dumping waste would come. He planned to use one of those carts to enter the Extreme Poison Sect.

Not long after, he saw a young man in tattered clothes coming up, pulling a cart full of waste.

From the cliff below, Jin Ja-gang had heard the sound of carts moving about four times. The last cart had come just before sunset. To avoid encountering other carts, he would need to wait until then.

In the meantime, two more carts carrying waste came and went.

Among them was Gwak-o.

The moment Jin Ja-gang saw Gwak-o, a great killing intent surged within him.

But he was somewhat taken aback by Gwak-o’s face. When Jin Ja-gang had last seen him, Gwak-o’s face had been intact, but now one side was severely disfigured by a burn.

It seemed he couldn’t even see out of the eye on the burned side. If only the eye was affected, that would have been fortunate, but he was also constantly muttering something, making him appear deranged.

How had this happened? In just a month.

Jin Ja-gang didn’t feel sorry for Gwak-o. Having heard his mutterings, he felt some pity but no sympathy.

Gwak-o was a traitor. He had led many people of Hundred Flower Valley to their deaths. And he had betrayed Jin Ja-gang’s trust until the very end.

That was the only truth that remained now.

‘Wait?’

Originally, Jin Ja-gang had planned to take over a cart from someone of similar build and pretend to be a cart puller.

But the moment he saw Gwak-o, his thoughts changed.

‘I have a debt to repay anyway.’

Jin Ja-gang stealthily approached Gwak-o from behind.