Chapter 29

Longlao stopped walking.

The traps and snares he had seen so far were too crude. They were traps that could hardly be considered set by an adult.

And even the traces were small in scope. The footprints left in the trampled grass belonged not to an adult but to a child.

‘They said both were poisoned, but only the boy is moving…’

Longlao pieced together fragments of thought. Then suddenly, he shouted loudly to the warriors:

“Catch him!”

Abruptly, the sound of someone running away could be heard clearly. It was unmistakably the sound of someone limping as they fled. The swaying of bushes in the distance was visible too.

The warriors all drew their swords at once and began running toward that spot.

But during this commotion, Longlao moved in the opposite direction from where the sound had first come.

He wore two layers of deerskin gloves and wrapped his face with cloth several times. Using a small knife, he cut away every tiny branch as he moved.

As expected, the smell of sulfur wafted from various places. It seemed poison had been liberally spread.

Vines blocked his path ahead.

Looking at the ground, there were traces suggesting someone had crawled inside the vines. Longlao cut away all the vines with his knife.

Beneath a large tree.

A bulging shape covered with fallen leaves and grass.

The corners of Longlao’s mouth turned up involuntarily.

“Found you.”

***

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Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

Jin Ja-gang ran breathlessly. Four warriors were chasing him from behind.

“Huff, huff.”

He kept looking back as he ran desperately.

The distance between an adult’s stride and a limping ten-year-old boy’s pace quickly narrowed.

The fastest warrior approached Jin Ja-gang from behind.

The warrior was somewhat surprised by Jin Ja-gang’s appearance. He was smaller and more frail than expected.

The warrior tightened his grip on his sword. If he struck down with the sword, Jin Ja-gang would die instantly. Judging by his limping and labored breathing, it didn’t seem like he could dodge anyway.

But the warrior couldn’t do it.

“Capture the child alive! If the child dies, you die too!”

Those were Longlao’s words.

‘Damn it!’

The warrior cursed under his breath while his sword hand trembled.

Capturing the boy wouldn’t be easy. Even the once-powerful Elder Mang had been troubled by this child, and both Bloody Hand and Great Desert Saber, renowned masters, had died at his hands.

And what about those who had died while pursuing this child so far?

‘And I’m supposed to capture someone like this?’

He couldn’t help but curse.

But looking at the situation now, it didn’t seem impossible either.

Jin Ja-gang, who was only running away, didn’t appear particularly formidable.

The warrior decided to try capturing Jin Ja-gang with his hands rather than his sword.

After carefully watching for an opportunity, the warrior lunged and grabbed Jin Ja-gang by the nape of his neck. He would have preferred to grab him by the hair, but Jin Ja-gang was bald, leaving nothing to grip.

“Kuk!”

Jin Ja-gang let out a choked groan as his neck was squeezed. Just when it seemed he had been captured too easily, Jin Ja-gang turned his body and swung something.

It was a broken branch. The sharp end of the branch scraped the warrior’s forearm. It didn’t stab deeply or cause a serious wound. Just enough to draw a trickle of blood.

But in that moment, the warrior felt a chill run down his spine.

Being scratched by something.

He understood what that meant.

“Ugh… ugh!”

The warrior screamed in terror even before the poison had taken effect. Naturally, he released Jin Ja-gang. Blue veins began to bulge along his scratched forearm.

“Aaaaargh!”

Jin Ja-gang started running again. Another warrior rushed forward and swung his sword at Jin Ja-gang’s legs.

“You brat!”

Jin Ja-gang rolled on the ground. He had practically offered his body directly to the sword.

“Urgh!”

The warrior couldn’t follow through with his sword strike. He needed to wound Jin Ja-gang just enough without accidentally killing him by cutting the wrong place, which would result in his own punishment.

As Jin Ja-gang rolled on the ground, he threw dirt at the warrior’s face. While the warrior’s vision was obscured, Jin Ja-gang scratched the warrior’s leg with a branch.

“Urrgh!”

Even though the warrior’s skin wasn’t scratched—only his clothes were brushed—and he wasn’t poisoned, he panicked out of fear.

Seeing the warrior who had just been scratched on the forearm dying with foam at his mouth made it impossible not to be afraid.

“Save me. Save me! I, I have children at home. My mother can’t even move…”

Jin Ja-gang, who had been about to flee, turned back. The warrior was trembling and begging Jin Ja-gang:

“Please have mercy and give me the antidote, please!”

The other two warriors who had been running toward them stopped and merely watched, not daring to come closer.

Jin Ja-gang was overcome with a strange emotion.

It wasn’t pity but rather a reflection on the reversed roles.

‘Asking me to save you?’

Until now, it had mostly been Jin Ja-gang who begged for his life.

Jin Ja-gang had always been the one hiding and running away. His life had been entirely in the hands of others.

But now…

At some point, Jin Ja-gang’s position had changed.

It was now Jin Ja-gang himself who held the power to determine others’ life or death.

‘Power… I now have the power over life and death.’

Even Miao Weng, known as Bloody Hand, hadn’t begged Jin Ja-gang to spare his life in his dying moments!

Jin Ja-gang was no longer someone who would die just because others wanted him dead. Even while being pursued with a dagger in his stomach.

“Give me the antidote! Please! If I make it back alive, I promise never to chase you again!”

Jin Ja-gang realized he might be able to use this relative position to his advantage.

After quickly surveying his surroundings, he asked:

“How many people came after me?”

“What?”

Jin Ja-gang put his hand in his sleeve. As if the antidote was inside, but also implying he wouldn’t give it unless he got an answer.

The desperate warrior shouted:

“T-twenty-three! Five have died so far! And now I’m dying too! Hurry and give me the antidote!”

Jin Ja-gang felt a chill down his spine at the larger-than-expected number.

‘So the ones I can see aren’t all of them.’

He needed to deal with these warriors quickly and return to Yong-myeong. Jin Ja-gang started to run away without hesitation.

“The, the antidote!”

Jin Ja-gang didn’t even bother to respond.

The warrior’s expression changed dramatically as he realized he was poisoned and wouldn’t be given the antidote.

If he was going to die anyway without the antidote, he had nothing left to lose.

“Arrrgh! You evil b*st*rd!”

The warrior charged at Jin Ja-gang with crazed eyes.

Jin Ja-gang wasn’t caught off guard. As the warrior rushed at him bodily, the other warriors also joined the attack. They seemed to be planning to use one as a shield while attacking.

“Die!”

Having surveyed the terrain just moments ago, Jin Ja-gang remained calm. He quickly drew poison from his dantian up to his fingertip.

He had extracted so much poison that his right little finger was covered in blood. As the poison condensed, a transparent fluid formed at the tip, emitting a faint sulfur smell.

Jin Ja-gang grabbed a long vine hanging nearby and threw himself forward. The vine bent like a bow. He rubbed his little finger against the taut end of the vine, coating it with poison.

Then he released the vine toward the warrior who was charging right behind him. The bent vine straightened, lashing the warrior’s face like a whip.

Crack!

“Aargh!”

The warrior clutched his eyes after they were grazed by the vine leaves.

“Aaaaargh!”

The membrane of the eye is weak, so even a slight graze allows poison to seep in. The warrior frantically rubbed his eyes, but the poison had already entered. Soon he collapsed and began convulsing.

The other two warriors had nowhere to retreat now. Both charged at Jin Ja-gang simultaneously.

Jin Ja-gang knew he couldn’t outrun the two warriors, so he charged directly at them instead.

Even if they were treated as disposable by the Extreme Poison Sect, they were still adult men who lived by the sword. They weren’t easy opponents for a young Jin Ja-gang.

However, Jin Ja-gang wasn’t intimidated. Compared to the movements of the martial arts masters he had seen before, the warriors’ movements seemed too slow and ordinary.

Jin Ja-gang bit his little finger where he had drawn poison, then rolled forward to avoid their swords. Then he grabbed the first leg he saw and bit any exposed flesh.

“Aaaaargh!”

The warrior whose calf was bitten screamed in agony. Jin Ja-gang had bitten down so hard that his teeth sank in and tore flesh. The warrior behind was so startled by the sight that he thrust his sword at Jin Ja-gang.

As Jin Ja-gang rolled away on the ground, the warrior’s sword deeply pierced his companion’s thigh instead.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—”

Jin Ja-gang sucked the poison fluid accumulated at the tip of his little finger into his mouth, then spat it on the last warrior’s face. The torn flesh from the calf, blood, and poison fluid splattered on the warrior’s face and lips.

“Urgh! Urgh!”

The warrior frantically wiped his face and kept spitting.

“Ptoo! Ptoo ptoo!”

During this distraction, Jin Ja-gang picked up a sword from a fallen warrior. It was a thin blade that wobbled, but it was still heavy. Just heavy enough for a ten-year-old to barely swing.

Jin Ja-gang coated its tip with poison fluid and slashed at the side of the warrior who was busy spitting.

“Urrrgh!”

Though the cut was very shallow, it was enough.

Jin Ja-gang stared at the warrior, breathing heavily. The warrior trembled and backed away.

“I don’t want to die. I don’t want to…”

The terrified warrior soon collapsed.

“Kuk. Kek.”

The warrior struggled to breathe and soon began to convulse.

Watching others die was not a pleasant experience.

Though they couldn’t make sounds because their throats were swollen and filling with bloody foam, Jin Ja-gang knew they were dying in severe pain, experiencing all sorts of convulsions.

Jin Ja-gang felt a heaviness in his heart.

Clang.

His grip weakened, and he dropped the sword.

“Huff, huff.”

Looking at his fingers, his little finger was in tatters. Blood dripped steadily.

He was exhausted. It felt like he could collapse at any moment.

He had just killed four men. Yet fifteen still remained. Among them, there would surely be masters mixed in, not just ordinary warriors.

Jin Ja-gang touched his dantian to check the remaining poison.

It definitely felt depleted. The mass that had settled in his dantian had shrunk to less than half its original size.

‘Even so, I should have enough poison left.’

But how to use that poison to kill opponents was another matter entirely.

Even if he had managed to catch opponents off guard so far, once they became vigilant, his current methods would likely no longer work.

‘I need to get back to the mister first.’

Jin Ja-gang took a deep breath and looked around.

Four corpses now lay strewn about. Casting an indifferent gaze at them, Jin Ja-gang returned to Yong-myeong.

* * *

The place where Yong-myeong had been lying was completely torn apart. The vines he had covered with poison were all cut down, and the fallen leaves and grass that had covered Yong-myeong were scattered.

Jin Ja-gang froze in place.

‘I’ve been tricked!’

Yong-myeong had been captured.

Jin Ja-gang quickly hid in nearby bushes.

His heart raced wildly.

There was a high possibility that enemies were nearby.

Jin Ja-gang thought he had no options left. No matter how much he considered it, he couldn’t think of any good way to rescue Yong-myeong from fifteen adults.

‘I’m sorry, mister.’

If he lingered, he would only be captured too. At this point, Jin Ja-gang had done all he could.

Once he made his decision, Jin Ja-gang moved immediately.

Just as he was about to crawl away slowly, Jin Ja-gang saw someone’s leg.

The distance was about five zhang.

The leg was sticking out from the bushes—and it was none other than Yong-myeong’s leg.

Could he have regained mobility and hidden himself? Or had he been killed and discarded?

‘Mister!’

Either way, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t know without checking.

He remained still, waiting silently for a while. When he sensed no presence, he crawled toward Yong-myeong. He moved slowly, taking great care not to make any sound.

When he got close enough to confirm, it was indeed Yong-myeong. He was still breathing, and he opened his eyes when he saw Jin Ja-gang approach.

It seemed the monkshood had worked properly, as his paralysis had eased somewhat.

Jin Ja-gang, cautious, didn’t approach too closely but asked from a slight distance by mouthing the words:

‘Mister, are you alright?’

Yong-myeong could only tremble his lips, still unable to make a sound. He tried to lift his fingers. His hand trembled as it moved slightly.

Jin Ja-gang, not noticing Yong-myeong’s hand gesture, only felt relief that Yong-myeong seemed better than before.