Chapter 84

As expected, the gate guards blocked his way.

“Halt.”

Jin Ja-gang stopped.

“What business do you have here?”

Jin Ja-gang didn’t answer right away, quickly assessing the situation.

Of the six guards, three were distracted, one was rummaging through a cart, and only the two in front were actually confronting him.

The guards menacingly brandished their bladed iron umbrellas.

“Are you mute? Why aren’t you answering? What are you here for?”

A murderous glint flashed in Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

“Is this Iron Umbrella Sect?”

The two guards flinched, gripping their iron umbrellas tightly.

“Wh-what?”

“It is, but…”

Jin Ja-gang quietly muttered,

“I see.”

He rolled up his sleeve and drew out an acupuncture needle.

“Hey!”

While the guard fumbled, Jin Ja-gang stabbed the needle into the back of his hand.

He wasn’t yet skilled enough to target acupoints, so he simply drove it in with brute force-the needle pierced so deeply it came out the palm.

“Aaagh!”

The guard dropped his iron umbrella.

The other guard swung his umbrella at Jin Ja-gang, who rolled on the ground, snatched up the dropped umbrella, and rammed it into the attacking guard’s stomach.

“Agh!”

The commotion startled the other four guards, who pointed their umbrellas at Jin Ja-gang. But with their comrade impaled on the umbrella, they couldn’t fire recklessly.

Jin Ja-gang shoved the umbrella in deeper.

“Grrrrk!”

The bladed tip burst through the guard’s stomach. Jin Ja-gang twisted the umbrella, turning it toward the remaining guards. He’d already mastered how to use it.

He pulled the handle, firing the hidden weapon inside the umbrella.

Thwip!

A needle shot into one guard’s thigh. The “joint-melting needle” was a terrifying poison that dissolved bone and joints.

Knowing this, the guard panicked.

“Aaaaagh!”

He yanked the needle out and hurriedly pulled a thin bamboo tube from his clothes. Tearing off the paper seal, he shook black, pellet-like antidotes into his palm.

As he tried to swallow them, Jin Ja-gang charged and slammed into him.

Thud.

The guard dropped both the antidote and umbrella, tumbling to the ground. Jin Ja-gang snatched up the umbrella and attacked another guard.

Thwip!

Another needle embedded itself in a guard’s abdomen. Jin Ja-gang stabbed him in the neck with the umbrella, stopping him from taking the antidote. The man flailed, spraying blood.

Only two guards remained. They now realized this was no time to worry about their comrades-they had to fight for their lives. Both aimed their umbrellas at Jin Ja-gang.

Ping! Ping!

Two needles struck Jin Ja-gang’s leg and shoulder.

“Ghk!”

He stifled a groan, immediately drew in natural energy through his Baihui point, and circulated it through his qi channels. He sent the resulting internal energy to his right hand.

With his left, he yanked out the needles, gripped them in his right, and used the Flying Thread Twelve Branches hidden weapon technique. With half a breath, he could throw two needles in succession.

Swish! Swish!

The needles arced through the air, one striking a guard in the neck. The other was deflected by his open umbrella.

Was his training still lacking?

Jin Ja-gang rifled through a fallen guard’s clothes, grabbed the antidote, and ran.

Only then did the last guard snap out of it and shout,

“Enemy! We’re under attack!”

He frantically rang the bell at the gate.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Hearing the alarm, Iron Umbrella Sect warriors saw Jin Ja-gang limping away in the distance.

* * *

Iron Umbrella Sect was thrown into chaos.

The sect leader, Kang Gyu, was quick to assess the situation.

“The limping bastard was hit with the joint-melting needle and fled. He had no allies to help him. For whatever reason, he acted alone and botched the job.”

Kang Gyu summoned the division leaders and ordered,

“Search the entire county! He’s been hit with the joint-melting needle-even if he takes the antidote, he’ll be unable to move for days. The limping bastard is hiding nearby. Find him at all costs!”

With the limping man nearly helpless from the poison, capturing him meant they could uncover who was behind these attacks.

It was an opportunity sent from heaven.

So Kang Gyu delayed the departure for Poison Valley.

Poison Valley wasn’t far. They could leave after catching the limping man.

Over half of Iron Umbrella Sect’s hundred warriors spent two days searching every corner of the county. They checked every house, every shed, even every outhouse.

But the limping man was nowhere to be found, and Kang Gyu was forced to depart for Poison Valley.

* * *

Naturally, Jin Ja-gang was barely affected by the joint-melting needle. He’d only had a nosebleed and some pain at first.

Taking the antidote was just for show.

Thanks to the one erasing Jin Ja-gang’s traces, no one knew his true nature. If no one had seen what he could do, no one would know he was immune to poison.

As soon as he escaped Iron Umbrella Sect, Jin Ja-gang ran straight for Poison Valley. That’s why the sect’s search was futile.

He wasn’t running away.

Skipping Iron Umbrella Sect just because things were tough? That had never crossed his mind.

Knowing how the joint-melting needle was developed, Jin Ja-gang could never forgive Iron Umbrella Sect.

Among the survivors from the medicine sects in the mine was an old man named Wan Sam, the sole survivor of Il-i Valley.

Wan Sam’s fingers were rotted, his nose gone-he looked almost like a leper.

Most of the medicine sect survivors bore scars from torture: skin flayed, wounds festering and burst. But none were as bad as Wan Sam.

Wan Sam had been captured by Iron Umbrella Sect.

He would often wake at night screaming. No amount of comforting could free him from his nightmares.

Wan Sam taught Jin Ja-gang only one thing: the method for making Hwandan elixir.

Unlike the others, who felt relieved after passing on their secret arts, Wan Sam remained haunted even after teaching Jin Ja-gang.

Only after passing on his knowledge did he reveal why he was so broken.

“They lined us up and stabbed us with poisoned needles. Then they watched what happened over time. It was a vicious poison-bones twisted, joints melted, limbs dropped off. Some died when their neck bones dissolved and broke.”

Jin Ja-gang listened in silence.

“Later I learned they were using us as test subjects for new poisons. The other medicine sect disciples died horribly… Even our own people died one by one. At first, we begged for our lives, but the pain grew so bad we couldn’t even beg. We just cried and pleaded for death. Then, to shut us up, they tore out our tongues…”

Wan Sam wept as he spoke.

“I was lucky. I was used in the experiments where they gave the antidote after the needle. By chance, the antidote worked and I survived. They were thrilled when the needle was perfected.”

He sighed deeply.

“Whenever I close my eyes, I see that hellish scene. Bodies collapsing as bones melted, faces dissolving, eyes falling out… Friends vomiting their guts as they died…”

Wan Sam shuddered. Then, with more life in his eyes than Jin Ja-gang had ever seen, he made a request.

“Others ask to be killed by poison. But I’m sick of poison. Kill me with something else, anything but poison.”

Jin Ja-gang nodded.

He understood Wan Sam’s feelings perfectly-he’d suffered the same at Mang Ryo’s hands.

Jin Ja-gang stabbed Wan Sam’s heart with a sharp spike.

“It hurts… but compared to back then, it’s nothing. Compared to what my friends suffered, this is easy. Now I can finally rest…”

Wan Sam died with a smile.

He made no requests for revenge, no pleas for the future. He didn’t worry about Jin Ja-gang being left alone.

He simply had no room left to worry about others. He was too deeply trapped in his own pain.

Later, Jin Ja-gang learned the poison needle perfected by Iron Umbrella Sect at the cost of so many lives was called the joint-melting needle.

How could Jin Ja-gang possibly leave Iron Umbrella Sect alone?

Of all the sects, Iron Umbrella Sect was the one he could not afford to fail against.

Poison Valley, who ordered the destruction of Hundred Flower Valley, and Poison Valley, who buried the survivors alive, were direct enemies, but Iron Umbrella Sect was among the worst offenders.

They had to die.

Especially the leadership who gave the orders-they must die by Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

He ground his teeth.

Grrrr.

“I will make you pay for the joint-melting needle!”

To save time, Jin Ja-gang sometimes used his internal energy to his right foot only, giving himself a brief burst of speed. It wasn’t true lightness skill, just enough for a few quick steps.

Still, he pressed on without rest, trying to catch up to Iron Umbrella Sect’s warriors.

Luckily, before a full day had passed, he found them in a village.

They had taken over an entire inn, driving out the guests, making their presence obvious.

Hehe Inn.

[TL Note – Yep that’s the name of the inn.]

Jin Ja-gang circled the inn, carefully observing the terrain. There was a large market nearby, noisy with the sounds of cattle, pigs, dogs, and chickens. But the inn itself was tucked away on a quiet side street, with little foot traffic.

That meant it was easy to defend-just guard the alley and you were safe.

‘It’ll be hard to get in unnoticed…’

They’d even bought all their food in advance.

If they suspected someone was after them, they’d be extra careful with their meals.

‘Even if I get into the kitchen, it won’t be easy to poison the food.’

The most important thing in using poison is to do it covertly.

If you can poison someone without them even realizing, that’s the highest level of skill.

Jin Ja-gang paced around the inn, thinking, then headed for the market.

* * *

Iron Umbrella Sect couldn’t afford to waste any more time after losing two days searching for the limping man.

“Sorry for the delay. We were held up by a pointless matter.”

Sect leader Kang Gyu apologized to the two experts from Poison Valley.

“It’s fine.”

“Shame we couldn’t catch him, but it’s time to leave.”

“Let’s go.”

Kang Gyu, the Poison Valley experts, and thirty warriors left Iron Umbrella Sect. Kang Gyu and the two experts traveled ahead using lightness skill; the rest followed behind.

The gifts for Poison Valley, loaded on two carts, were being transported separately by an escort agency.