Chapter 30

It seemed like just a little more time would pass before he could move.

“What’s going on?” Jin Ja-gang asked again, mouthing the words. Yong-myeong tried to say something by moving his lips and narrowing his eyes, then frowning, but Jin Ja-gang couldn’t understand.

‘I need to hide the mister again first.’

He thought he should pull Yong-myeong further in and go out to lure the enemies elsewhere.

But then.

There was an acrid smell, and suddenly his head started spinning.

‘Huh?’

Realizing something was wrong, Jin Ja-gang looked around carefully while lying flat. Only then did he notice the dark powder scattered around.

‘Poison powder!’

His head continued to spin until he finally felt like vomiting.

‘Urgh!’

Jin Ja-gang hurriedly covered his mouth. But he couldn’t hold back the nausea rising from within.

“Bleuurgh!”

He couldn’t help making a loud noise.

Though he covered his mouth, stomach acid flowed down his fingers. Even though he hadn’t eaten anything for a while and only bile came out, he continued to retch.

Thud!

Footsteps were heard.

Someone had been hiding nearby!

Jin Ja-gang lowered his body further and moved sideways. However, the uncontrollable retching continued to reveal his position.

“Huurgh! Bleeuurgh!”

The passing footsteps returned and stopped right in front of Jin Ja-gang.

An elderly voice was heard.

“Kukukuk. There’s no point hiding. I’ve scattered Nausea Powder everywhere around here.”

It was Longlao.

“I knew a small brat like you would be crawling on the ground.”

Longlao had used Yong-myeong as bait, scattered Nausea Powder, and lured Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang blamed himself for falling into the trap despite being careful. Because he had been crawling on the ground, he inevitably inhaled the Nausea Powder without realizing it.

Jin Ja-gang tried to stand up and run away, but he staggered and sat back down.

“Bleeuurgh!”

By now, Jin Ja-gang was vomiting blood as there was nothing else left to expel. The Nausea Powder, true to its name, caused continuous retching.

Longlao gave a sinister smile.

“Hehe. For those who hide, Nausea Powder is far more effective than Paralysis Powder.”

Longlao looked at Jin Ja-gang for a moment, then unexpectedly spoke to him.

“It’s been a while. Do you remember me? Answer me. I’ll give you the antidote.”

It’s been a while?

Jin Ja-gang, whose mind was completely overwhelmed, was in so much pain that he was willing to answer anything. But Longlao was more cunning than Jin Ja-gang thought.

Just as Jin Ja-gang was about to speak, Longlao drove his foot into Jin Ja-gang’s solar plexus.

Thwack!

Being attacked at a vital point while trying to speak, Jin Ja-gang’s breath was completely cut off.

He rose into the air and then fell.

His breath was blocked, so he couldn’t even scream. Longlao wanted to subdue Jin Ja-gang quietly without alerting the other masters of the pursuit team.

“Kuk, keuup!”

Jin Ja-gang clutched his chest and crawled on the ground.

His solar plexus felt completely blocked with pain. Even amid this, he continued to retch and cough up blood.

Longlao approached and stepped on Jin Ja-gang’s back.

“There is no antidote. The Nausea Powder is fast-acting and will subside soon. But don’t get any strange ideas.”

When Longlao pressed down firmly with his foot, Jin Ja-gang made a wheezing sound as his lungs were compressed.

“Keuuuu.”

He was gripped by fear that his ribs would break and pierce his lungs, or that they might protrude through his back at any moment. It felt like a heavy rock was pressing on his back.

When Jin Ja-gang struggled wildly, Longlao slightly reduced the pressure from his foot.

“If your ribs break, you’ll develop chest pain and won’t be able to breathe, making it difficult to escape. If you don’t want that to happen, don’t try to run away. Though before that, your spine might be crushed first.”

Even in that situation, Jin Ja-gang was looking for a way to survive. However, with his back pinned down, all he could do was struggle. Jin Ja-gang had been completely subdued.

Longlao carefully searched Jin Ja-gang’s body with his deerskin-gloved hands. He was looking for poison.

But there was nothing to be found.

The only thing he found was the Hundred Flower Secret Scripture that Jin Ja-gang was carrying.

“Hmm.”

Longlao thought for a moment, then said:

“Before the others arrive, I’d like to ask you a few questions… Where did you put the poison? Surely you haven’t used it all up?”

From those words, Jin Ja-gang gathered that this old man was alone in the vicinity.

So he nodded. Longlao probably didn’t think that Jin Ja-gang carried the poison within his body.

Longlao applied pressure with his foot.

“Kueok.”

“Ah, that was just me getting angry and making a mistake for a moment.”

Longlao released the pressure from his foot.

“Let’s try again. Are you Jin Ja-gang?”

Jin Ja-gang nodded.

“Were you the one who spread poison around this area?”

When Jin Ja-gang hesitated to answer, Longlao asked again.

“What happened to the men who went after you? Are all four of them dead?”

There was no need to answer that.

“Seeing as they haven’t returned, they must all be dead. Then the traps, snares, and poison were all your doing…”

After thinking for a moment, Longlao suddenly applied pressure with his foot.

“Kueuuuuk!”

“Now, this is the most important question. Where did you get the poison you’re using? It’s from the Mixed Spring Ground, isn’t it?”

As his chest felt like it was about to burst, Jin Ja-gang quickly nodded.

“Hmph, to think we had a treasure in our home all along and never knew it.”

Though Longlao sighed, he couldn’t hide his smile. He was overjoyed at the thought of soon having that poison in his hands.

“Wait a moment. But the only one who entered the Mixed Spring Ground and came out alive was this little brat. That means I’ll have to secretly take him and go to the Mixed Spring Ground…”

Having witnessed the power of Jin Ja-gang’s poison firsthand, Longlao had no intention of sharing it with anyone else.

“What should I do…?”

While Longlao was deliberating, Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth and tried to clear his mind.

The dizziness that had made the world spin was now subsiding, and the nausea was almost gone.

An ordinary civilian would have suffered from headaches for at least a quarter of an hour. But being Jin Ja-gang, he had already recovered.

As Longlao was considering how to smuggle Jin Ja-gang away, Jin Ja-gang was thinking about how to escape… but pinned down with his back under Longlao’s foot, there seemed to be no way to free himself. All he could do was flail his limbs. Due to the structure of the human body, no matter how far he reached back with his arms, he couldn’t reach Longlao’s leg.

He needed to free himself and have his limbs available to either kill Longlao or escape. He needed to be able to at least scratch with his fingernails…

But there seemed to be no way.

‘Ugh…’

Jin Ja-gang shuddered, thinking of what he had endured at the Extreme Poison Sect. He couldn’t be dragged back and suffer the same fate again.

‘No! I don’t want that!’

Desperately, he looked around. Though it was difficult to move his arms and legs, he searched for anything he could use in his surroundings.

That’s when Jin Ja-gang noticed the red-petaled plant right in front of him.

Even in late autumn, it was still blooming, with the flower stems clustered together and the thin, string-like flowers gathered in the center and spread out.

‘Spider lily!’

The spider lily, like monkshood, is a poisonous plant.

Jin Ja-gang carefully pushed his hand into the soil. Near the roots, he felt a round, onion-like bulb.

Strictly speaking, it’s not a root but a stem. The nutrients and poison are contained in this scaly bulb, which is specifically called Lycoris radiata.

But this spider lily’s poison has a unique effect.

It was something he had learned while playing pranks in Hundred Flower Valley as a child.

‘If I use this…!’

Whether it worked or not, this was the only option left.

Jin Ja-gang screamed, not too loudly, but enough to startle Longlao.

“Aaaah, it hurts! Ah, it hurts!”

Neither Longlao nor Jin Ja-gang wanted to be discovered by others. Surprised, Longlao reduced the pressure from his foot a bit more.

“My chest… my chest hurts. It hurts so much I can’t breathe.”

Jin Ja-gang flailed his arms and legs, clutching at the ground and writhing as if in great pain.

“Hmm? Oh my… Did I step too hard and break a bone? Alright, I understand, so be quiet.”

“Aaaah, it hurts! It hurts!”

Jin Ja-gang made more noise and continued to struggle. He scraped at the ground, scratching frantically.

“Hey, I told you to be quiet. You’re not listening to your elders, are you?”

Longlao applied slight pressure with his foot as a threat, but Jin Ja-gang only struggled more violently.

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Argh. This little…”

Since it seemed like a bone might have broken and pierced Jin Ja-gang’s lung, Longlao couldn’t apply more pressure.

Longlao reluctantly reduced the pressure from his foot and decided to press Jin Ja-gang’s acupoint to silence him.

To press the acupoint on the jaw, he needed to bend down. Pressing the acupoint behind the ear would stiffen the jaw and prevent speech.

Longlao bent down, grabbed Jin Ja-gang’s head, and positioned his middle finger near Jin Ja-gang’s ear.

At that moment.

There was a strong smell of grass.

Since they were deep in the mountains, the smell of grass wasn’t unusual.

What was strange was the sudden intensity of the grass smell.

Suddenly, his nose felt tingly.

Then he felt warmth under his nose.

Drip.

Something fell.

‘…Huh?’

Drip, drip, drip.

When he rubbed it with his hand, bright red blood stained his fingers.

Hot blood was flowing from his nose.

“A nosebleed?”

What could possibly cause a sudden nosebleed?

Longlao was startled enough that his hair stood on end.

Poison!

Longlao quickly moved away from Jin Ja-gang. He was too shocked to even think about stomping Jin Ja-gang to death.

His spine was damp with sweat.

‘How did I get poisoned? That brat was lying down and couldn’t even touch my body!’

Jin Ja-gang, who had been lying face down, got up and as he scraped the ground, he threw soil toward Longlao’s face.

It wasn’t particularly threatening. Longlao easily dodged by turning his head slightly.

The flying soil contained crushed grass, flowers, and small pebbles. But as they brushed past his face, that grass smell wafted strongly!

The moment he smelled it, his head throbbed. His stomach also churned.

“Urgh!”

Longlao immediately stopped breathing and summoned his internal energy. The continuous nosebleed blocked his airway and broke his concentration.

‘How in the world!’