Chapter 195

Tang Ha-ran thought Poison Dragon was more pathetic than she had expected.

He was caught by the neck and waiting for death after just a few moves where she hadn’t even used her full strength. It was hard to believe that he had fought and defeated Young Phoenix, Silent Dragon, and Dancing Buddha.

Yet Tang Qing had recognized this Poison Dragon as her match?

It would be better to kill Poison Dragon like this and have Tang Qing judge her value anew, or else marry the leprous old man as Mang Ryo ordered and commit suicide.

She hadn’t worked for the Tang family all this time to marry such a worthless person. She hadn’t endured difficult and harsh training for this.

Tang Ha-ran’s pride was greatly wounded and she put strength into her hands.

“I can’t accept it! I…”

However, Tang Ha-ran couldn’t completely pull the whip handle.

It was because of Poison Dragon’s eyes.

The eyes of Poison Dragon that she had seen when he blocked Woon-jeong last time came to mind.

“I… I!”

Her feelings became strangely confused.

If she just applied a little more force, Poison Dragon would die, but she couldn’t do it. Was it because of Tang Qing, or for some other reason?

Tang Ha-ran, whose emotions had become complicated, spoke to Jin Ja-gang in a low, growling voice as if seeking some answer.

“Tell me… Is this all of your skill? If this is really all there is, I’ll kill you right here!”

Tang Ha-ran pulled the leather-braided handle a bit more strongly. She pressed Jin Ja-gang’s spine with her knee so that even if his neck didn’t break immediately, he would be severely strangled.

Then Jin Ja-gang raised his hand upward. He tried to stab Tang Ha-ran’s eyes with his fingers.

“How dare you!”

Tang Ha-ran pulled her waist back while raising her knee to press down on the back of Jin Ja-gang’s neck. With his head pressed forward, Jin Ja-gang’s arm could no longer rise.

However, instead, Tang Ha-ran’s opposite calf stung. While pretending to attack upward, he had stabbed the opposite leg that served as his axis with a needle.

The enraged Tang Ha-ran lifted Jin Ja-gang with her arm strength. She lifted him while the whip handle was around Jin Ja-gang’s neck and threw him.

“Hyaaaah!”

Even while being thrown, Jin Ja-gang turned his body to correct his posture. He rolled once on the ground, pushed off with his knees, and bounced up. At the same time, he threw five needles from both hands.

Swish swish swoosh.

Flying Thread Twelve Branches!

Tang Ha-ran held both sides of the whip with her hands and stretched it taut. All of Jin Ja-gang’s needles caught on the whip’s cord.

After pulling out the needle from her calf, Tang Ha-ran snorted.

“Are the only things you know how to do underhanded tricks? Such a person… such a person…!”

Jin Ja-gang, who had taken his stance, moved his neck left and right making cracking sounds and asked.

“You’ve been cutting off your words in the middle since earlier – what exactly do you want to say?”

Tang Ha-ran didn’t answer. No, she couldn’t answer. How could she say with her own mouth that the Tang family was trying to marry her to Poison Dragon!

But suddenly Jin Ja-gang looked at Taoist Bok-cheon.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Taoist Bok-cheon and asked back.

“Pardon?”

Was it her imagination? Jin Ja-gang’s expression seemed somewhat flustered.

Tang Ha-ran’s heart sank.

It seemed like Taoist Bok-cheon had said something through voice transmission.

Tang Ha-ran’s face turned red and her eyes widened as she stared at Taoist Bok-cheon.

Taoist Bok-cheon was the person who had said he would oversee her marriage and such. If he had said something strange to Jin Ja-gang…

“What are you saying during a martial contest! Stop, please just stop!”

“Huh?”

Taoist Bok-cheon looked puzzled as if asking what nonsense that was.

“I didn’t say anything at all.”

But that expression looked even more detestable to Tang Ha-ran.

At that moment, wind arose.

Tang Ha-ran instantly drew up her internal energy and swung her whip to protect her body. Several needles were deflected, and the short sword Jin Ja-gang had swung caught on the whip.

When Tang Ha-ran infused internal energy into the whip, the smooth scales covering the whip’s cord suddenly stood up in reverse.

Scraaaape!

When Tang Ha-ran pulled the whip in that state, Jin Ja-gang’s short sword caught on the scales and was flung away. When she withdrew the internal energy, the scales quietly covered again. If what had caught on the whip had been human flesh instead of a sword, it would have been torn right off.

Taoist Bok-cheon calmly expressed admiration.

“Indeed. The Tang family’s divine weapon. That is the Scale Whip.”

Hil is a legendary strange beast that looks like a dog with scales and pig hair on its body. Whether the Tang family actually caught a hil to make it was unknown, but it meant it was a weapon great enough to be called made from legendary beast scales.

However, every single word from Taoist Bok-cheon grated on Tang Ha-ran’s nerves. She couldn’t concentrate and was distracted, not knowing what he might have said to Jin Ja-gang.

Meanwhile, Jin Ja-gang immediately dropped his short sword and lowered his body to approach.

Tang Ha-ran was startled and tried to kick Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang inhaled and waited, then forcefully blew the blood drops flowing from his nose bridge down to his nose tip.

Puff!

Jin Ja-gang’s blood drops splattered into Tang Ha-ran’s eyes. Tang Ha-ran pulled her head back to avoid while kicking Jin Ja-gang hard.

But somehow her left foot was stiff and her body didn’t move properly.

‘Oh no!’

She remembered that Jin Ja-gang had stabbed a needle into her calf.

Jin Ja-gang’s nickname was Poison Dragon.

There was no reason he wouldn’t use poison when stabbing with needles.

She had certainly been careless, thinking he wouldn’t use poison on a Tang family person, but after that, Jin Ja-gang kept talking and Taoist Bok-cheon made her flustered, so she had carelessly forgotten about it.

Jin Ja-gang’s actions were definitely deliberate. To prevent her from coming to her senses until the poison spread.

Tang Ha-ran quickly weakened the poison using the Tang family’s breathing method. Weakening poison wasn’t just suppressing the poison energy but actually weakening the toxicity itself – a unique Tang family technique. It was only possible if one had built resistance to poison from childhood and learned matching internal energy cultivation methods.

However, her mind was distracted and she couldn’t concentrate. Operating internal energy required a high degree of concentration.

While Tang Ha-ran hesitated, Jin Ja-gang came close and pressed down on Tang Ha-ran’s instep with his knee to fix it, then pulled her knee joint.

Tang Ha-ran staggered and fell backward on her bottom.

Tang Ha-ran gave up trying to stand and raised both hands while keeping her upper body upright with her waist strength. If she clapped these hands together like prayer to hit Jin Ja-gang’s head from both sides, Jin Ja-gang’s head would burst like a watermelon!

But Tang Ha-ran couldn’t do it.

Jin Ja-gang’s face had come too close… Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

The blazing, burning eyes of a wild beast.

Tang Ha-ran was momentarily dazed.

Those were exactly those eyes.

The ones that had appeared even in her dreams.

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes were chillingly eerie. Exactly as she had seen before, exactly the same eyes as then. The wild eyes that had given Tang Ha-ran such a great impact.

But Tang Ha-ran found those eyes too disappointing now.

‘Why!’

Tang Ha-ran gritted her teeth. If she struck Jin Ja-gang’s head, everything would end regardless of what happened afterward. Jin Ja-gang’s head bursting meant Jin Ja-gang would die.

She had definitely decided to kill him when the opportunity to kill came, but Tang Ha-ran kept hesitating.

Tang Ha-ran forced herself to understand that her hesitation was because of her grandfather Tang Qing’s orders.

But while Tang Ha-ran couldn’t attack Jin Ja-gang and only held up her arms, Jin Ja-gang stabbed Tang Ha-ran’s thigh with a needle, stabbed her abdomen, and climbed up.

He even consecutively stabbed with needles the armpit that was exposed because Tang Ha-ran had raised her arms. The armpit had dangerous pressure points, so if attacked there, one couldn’t use their arms at all.

“Ahhh!”

When Tang Ha-ran was stabbed in her left armpit, she unconsciously brought down her right palm with all her might. Jin Ja-gang stuck close to Tang Ha-ran’s body and met it by completely offering his left shoulder.

Thwack!

Because they were too close, Tang Ha-ran’s palm strike couldn’t receive proper force. But Tang Ha-ran’s internal energy was so deep that Jin Ja-gang’s shoulder was instantly dislocated and his left arm dangled. It was tremendous power. Jin Ja-gang was bounced to the side but held on by grabbing Tang Ha-ran’s clothes.

The injured Jin Ja-gang’s eyes became even more fierce. If the distance opened, it would be difficult to handle the whip, so he had to stick close and fight to the end.

Jin Ja-gang crawled on the ground and rammed Tang Ha-ran’s chin with his head. Tang Ha-ran hastily turned her head. Jin Ja-gang’s head struck Tang Ha-ran’s cheek as it passed.

“Ugh!”

Tang Ha-ran’s face reddened.

No matter what, this was the first time she had been in such close physical contact with a man. No, if it had been any other ordinary man, she would have just burst his head and crushed him.

Being so close, she could feel Jin Ja-gang’s body temperature and hot breath completely.

Tang Ha-ran fell into a momentary state of panic.

Jin Ja-gang raised his body from on top of the half-sitting Tang Ha-ran and struck Tang Ha-ran’s shoulder with his elbow. Tang Ha-ran twisted her body to avoid it. Jin Ja-gang tried to press Tang Ha-ran’s neck with his hand. Tang Ha-ran raised her right arm to block Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

Both couldn’t use their left hands and were too close to kick with their legs, so they began fiercely deploying hand techniques with only their right arms.

Tap tap, tap.

Hands became entangled and finger joints collided. Tang Ha-ran grabbed Jin Ja-gang’s little finger and tried to twist it. Jin Ja-gang read Tang Ha-ran’s intention through sticking, connecting, adhering, and following as he had learned from Woon-jeong. He pulled out his little finger and stabbed Tang Ha-ran’s palm with his index and middle fingers. Tang Ha-ran closed her hand then shook her wrist like shaking off dust while quickly drawing with her hand blade. The tip of Jin Ja-gang’s middle fingernail was cut off by Tang Ha-ran’s hand blade.

Jin Ja-gang grabbed just below Tang Ha-ran’s wrist and twisted it. Tang Ha-ran shook her wrist to shake off Jin Ja-gang’s wrist. Jin Ja-gang pressed Tang Ha-ran’s wrist with his elbow and pushed it to Tang Ha-ran’s neck.

“Kugh!”

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes looking down at Tang Ha-ran were sharp.

‘Why!’

When Tang Ha-ran felt her throat being pressed and about to break, she turned her head to the side to barely open her airway. Because she had been hit with poison needles consecutively on her shin, then thigh, waist, and armpit, it was extremely difficult to move her body. She had never dreamed she would have to engage in such muddy fighting.

Jin Ja-gang rammed the side of Tang Ha-ran’s head with his head.

Surprised, Tang Ha-ran forcefully drew up her internal energy and pushed him away with her arm.

Whoosh!

Jin Ja-gang was pushed back two or three steps, staggered, then lowered his center and corrected his posture. The murderous look in his eyes glaring at Tang Ha-ran became even more severe.

She had wanted exactly those eyes, but Tang Ha-ran felt both glad and chilled to see those eyes.

‘Why!’

Tang Ha-ran also barely stood up, but felt nauseous and her head became dizzy.

Only Jin Ja-gang’s intense eyes looking at her entered her vision. She couldn’t see anything else.

Suddenly tears came.

“Ah…!”

Tang Ha-ran was surprised and turned pale upon realizing the meaning of those tears.

She had become aware of why she was feeling disappointed while looking at Jin Ja-gang now.

The look Jin Ja-gang was giving was the eyes of a beast facing prey. Eyes containing the will to simply devour the prey before his eyes, regardless of martial world morality, political symbiotic relationships, or anything else.

Those eyes were directed at her.

That’s why she felt disappointed.

She had wanted him to go hunting together with her with such eyes, but instead she had become the target of the hunt.

She knew it was partly her fault for making Jin Ja-gang like that, but even so, she couldn’t hide her disappointed feelings.

‘I…’

Tang Ha-ran now completely understood her own heart.

‘I had fallen for this man…’

Unable to acknowledge her own feelings, when the forced marriage was decided by Mang Ryo, she felt as if it had been discovered. Having her heart discovered by someone she had thought lowly of was tremendous shame. So she had raged in rebellion.

But Tang Ha-ran’s actual heart… had been completely stolen by Jin Ja-gang from the moment she first saw those eyes.

Drip.

Once it burst, she couldn’t stop it.

Tears flowed from Tang Ha-ran’s eyes.

After confirming her own heart, her anger melted away like ice. She felt so stupid and foolish for only being able to express her feelings to Jin Ja-gang in this way.

Jin Ja-gang was momentarily startled seeing Tang Ha-ran shedding tears endlessly.

Tang Ha-ran did nothing and just sat down, staring blankly at Jin Ja-gang. For Jin Ja-gang too, it was an extremely bewildering situation.