Chapter 38

In Mang-ryo’s opinion, Jin Ja-gang was definitely targeting the well.

They had even reduced the number of warriors guarding it from four to one to make it appear poorly defended.

Yet, Jin Ja-gang never showed up.

‘Why?’

Could he have noticed the ambush?

Or was he hiding in the Extreme Poison Sect like he had in the Mixed Spring Ground, planning to hold out for at least another month?

Until everyone’s vigilance completely collapsed?

Something was wrong. It felt like something had gone wrong along the way.

In any case, since Jin Ja-gang hadn’t appeared, Mang-ryo couldn’t say anything to Miao Ligoujao.

Meanwhile, a warrior came running and reported something to Miao Ligoujao.

After hearing the warrior’s report, Miao Ligoujao said to Mang-ryo:

“According to Elder Go’s investigation, it seems there was a lot of sulfur mixed in the water that was stored in the reservoirs. When they poured it on the fire, it created smoke that caused the poisonings.”

Mang-ryo’s eyebrows twitched.

‘Sulfur? In the reservoirs?’

There is a lot of sulfur near the Extreme Poison Sect. Even the water flowing through the valleys contains sulfur.

That’s why potable water is scarce and there’s only one well here.

So it’s not strange that there would be sulfur in the water stored in the reservoirs. Moreover, sulfur isn’t just one element but exists as various compounds, some of which could be highly toxic.

But Mang-ryo’s heart was beating even faster than before. The Mixed Spring Ground, where Jin Ja-gang had spent over a month, was a place filled with sulfur.

“That’s enough, isn’t it? Let’s stop bothering each other with these matters. Especially that little brat—I’m tired of even mentioning him.”

Despite Miao Ligoujao’s words, Mang-ryo became even more convinced that Jin Ja-gang had infiltrated.

“Sect Leader. We must immediately declare a state of emergency, form a search party, and search the entire Extreme Poison Sect. That brat must have realized we were guarding the well and gone into hiding.”

Miao Ligoujao’s face contorted.

“I told you to stop! I’ve already been quite lenient with you.”

“If not now, we’ll lose him!”

“Enough! How much longer do you intend to test my patience! That little brat, little brat, little brat! I’m absolutely sick of it!”

Miao Ligoujao berated Mang-ryo.

“From this moment on, Elder Mang is confined to his quarters until I give further orders! If you disobey, I’ll immediately strip you of your elder position and detain you!”

Mang-ryo’s eyes widened, and his face contorted.

“Sect Leader!”

Mang-ryo’s face turned bright red, but there was nothing he could do.

“You’ll regret this.”

Miao Ligoujao gestured to the warriors.

“Escort him!”

“Yes!”

Mang-ryo bit his lip as he was surrounded by warriors and forced to return to his quarters.

Miao Ligoujao also returned to his office with a displeased expression. He was furious thinking about how he had spent the entire night motionless because of Mang-ryo’s ridiculous delusions.

Back in his office, Miao Ligoujao shouted:

“Bring me breakfast!”

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

https://discord.gg/XC9DTsTQ9Z

***

Mang-ryo had been forcibly confined to his quarters.

Until now, Miao Ligoujao had still shown some respect to Mang-ryo because of his past achievements, but he had greatly offended the Sect Leader this time, making it difficult to receive any further consideration.

Now Mang-ryo was essentially finished in the Extreme Poison Sect, not even receiving the treatment of an elder. Actually, since the Extreme Poison Sect could hardly be called a proper sect to begin with, even the “elder treatment” was a laughable concept.

In a proper sect, an elder would be in a position to check and advise the sect leader, but in the Extreme Poison Sect, an elder was no different from a subordinate who simply followed the sect leader’s orders.

The problem was that he could no longer enjoy even the privileges that came with the elder position.

Overnight, he had gone from being the second-in-command of the Extreme Poison Sect to being confined to a back room unable to do anything, all because of Jin Ja-gang.

“Aaaarg!”

Mang-ryo flipped over the breakfast tray that had been brought to his quarters.

Even after fuming, his anger was not appeased, so he smashed the furniture in the room.

“That stupid Sect Leader! What nonsense! I built up the Extreme Poison Sect with my blood and sweat, and now he dares to disrespect me?”

Bang! Crash!

Only after breaking the furniture in the room for quite some time did his temper finally subside.

Mang-ryo took a deep breath and sat on a half-broken chair.

“Haaah.”

Even at this moment, the thought that Jin Ja-gang was out there somewhere made him want to rush out immediately. But if he did that, he would truly be imprisoned.

“Ugh.”

Mang-ryo gritted his teeth and looked at the overturned food tray on the floor. It was a simple meal with mixed grain rice and a few vegetable side dishes.

Though he had flipped the tray in anger, it was true that he was hungry after being outside all night.

“You there!”

One of the warriors standing outside Mang-ryo’s quarters entered when he called.

“Clean this up and bring me breakfast again.”

The guards outside were tasked with both serving and monitoring Mang-ryo, but they had unpleasant expressions, annoyed by Mang-ryo’s difficult personality.

“Yes, yes.”

The warrior answered halfheartedly and was about to leave.

At that moment, Mang-ryo detected a strange smell.

It was a very faint odor in the room, emanating from the overturned food tray on the floor.

A slightly pungent smell.

Mang-ryo’s hair stood on end.

“Hey!”

Mang-ryo called to the warrior who was about to leave.

He beckoned him closer and pointed to the floor.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

The warrior’s face was full of irritation.

“What?”

Mang-ryo smiled at the warrior. He was trying to smile gently, but to the warrior, it looked creepy.

Mang-ryo spoke as sweetly as possible:

“You haven’t eaten breakfast, have you? Come, don’t be shy, eat.”

Mang-ryo personally scooped rice from the overturned bowl with his hands and offered it to the warrior along with chopsticks.

“No, Elder.”

The warrior almost asked, “Do I look like a beggar to you?” but couldn’t quite say it. Despite Mang-ryo’s fallen status, he still had the martial prowess to snap the warrior’s neck with ease.

“I told you to eat, didn’t I?”

Mang-ryo, still smiling, tugged at the warrior’s collar. Then suddenly, he grabbed the warrior’s hair at the back of his head and forcibly tilted his head back. He then stuffed the rice into the warrior’s open mouth.

“Kuk kuk!”

Holding the warrior’s hair, Mang-ryo smiled and said:

“Chew it well and swallow. I won’t let go until you eat it all.”

The warrior had no choice but to chew and swallow the rice.

“That’s right, that’s right. Very good eating.”

Mang-ryo was extremely pleased. When the warrior had swallowed all the rice, he released his hair.

The warrior stepped back with a displeased expression and said:

“Even if you are an elder, this is too much!”

The smile disappeared from Mang-ryo’s face.

The warrior became frightened and closed his mouth.

“T-then, I’ll bring a new breakfast tray as ordered…”

Just as the warrior was backing out of the quarters…

He suddenly staggered.

“Huh?”

The warrior fell to his knees and shook his body.

“What? What’s happening?”

He began to retch.

“Urgh, urgh!”

Mang-ryo simply watched. The warrior turned his head and reached out toward Mang-ryo.

“E-Elder!”

The warrior’s eyes were bloodshot, as if inflamed. His body twitched, and he breathed rapidly.

Thud.

The warrior collapsed forward and convulsed.

He broke out in a cold sweat and clutched at his chest.

“E-Elder… ugh!”

The warrior’s face gradually turned black, while his lips became pale.

Only then did Mang-ryo get up, lift the warrior’s eyelids, and check his fingernails and toenails.

Then he smiled so broadly he couldn’t possibly smile any wider, without making a sound.

Mang-ryo was filled with joy.

As he had predicted, the warrior was dying from acute arsenic poisoning!

Arsenic is made from various materials, particularly from sulfurous minerals. This was entirely predictable from the moment they mentioned the sulfur smell in the reservoirs.

“I told you he was here! I said you’d regret not believing me!”

Jin Ja-gang—it was unbelievable what kind of person he must be to go this far.

What kind of mind did he have to be able to invade a place full of armed warriors at just ten years old to take revenge!

And to succeed with that plan!

“He’s insane. Absolutely insane.”

And that’s why Mang-ryo was delighted.

If the person who had ruined his body had been ordinary, he might have felt more self-loathing.

But this boy wasn’t ordinary—he was insane. Being defeated by someone insane made it somewhat less humiliating.

“I must catch you with my own hands. I want to see the fear in your eyes when I grind your bones! I want to see you beg me for your life once more!”

Mang-ryo stood at the door.

If he stepped outside, he would be disobeying Sect Leader Miao Ligoujao’s orders.

He would be stripped of his elder position and imprisoned.

But Mang-ryo didn’t care and raised his hand.

Bang!

He struck the door with his palm, blasting it off its hinges.

Then he strode outside.

The sunlight poured down blindingly bright.

Mang-ryo grinned, baring his white teeth.

“Well, let’s see what you’re capable of.”

* * *

Unlike Mang-ryo’s joyful expression, the outside was in complete chaos.

“Ugh…”

“S-save me…”

Like worms crawling out after rain, the warriors of the Extreme Poison Sect were crawling all over the ground. There were already visible corpses.

“Bleugh! Bleugh!”

Warriors who weren’t severely poisoned were vomiting everywhere.

The few unaffected warriors were simply panicking, not knowing what to do.

One of the unaffected warriors, who was tending to a comrade vomiting blood, saw Mang-ryo and called out:

“Elder! Please help! These friends suddenly…”

Mang-ryo stopped and looked down coldly at the warrior.

“Why aren’t you dead yet?”

“…What?”

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

“N-no, not yet…”

“Hmm, I see.”

Mang-ryo walked past without paying any more attention.

After checking with the unaffected warriors around, Mang-ryo came to one conclusion.

Everyone who had eaten was poisoned without exception.

In such cases, the highest probability was that poison had been added to the well water used for cooking rice. But they had been guarding the well all night, so it would have been difficult to poison it.

Mang-ryo immediately went to the kitchen. There too, only a few had survived, with most lying on the floor.

“Elder!”

“Did you eat?”

“What? I haven’t yet…”

Mang-ryo went to the rice containers beside the kitchen. He opened the lids of several large rice containers one by one and smelled them.

“Not the rice containers.”

For one thing, the lids would have been too heavy for Jin Ja-gang to lift, and with multiple rice containers, it would have been awkward to secretly poison all of them.

He also checked the large water jars.

These were jars where they stored water drawn from the well. The water jars were even larger than the rice containers, requiring a footstool to see inside, and they were covered with extremely heavy lids.

Since the kitchen needed to maintain the fire, people were on guard even at night, making it difficult to poison the water jars.

“Hmm. Then…”