Chapter 194

Chapter 194: Will Stronger Than Poison Exists (1)

Geum San-gyeong's eyes were trembling wildly.

Inside his mouth, screams were churning, but his voice could not materialize enough to escape.

A powerful hand clamped over his mouth. A hand as large as a pot lid sealed his mouth and nose, denying him any sound.

The person holding his mouth seized his shoulder with their other hand.

CRACK!

'Ughhh!'

As though crushed in a hydraulic press, his shoulder crumbled within the man's grip.

The screams were muffled by the palm, trapped inside his mouth.

Overwhelmed by excruciating pain, Geum San-gyeong shed tears.

His body trembled like an aspen, and every vein across his entire body bulged grotesquely.

'Who are you?'

Geum San-gyeong questioned the man with his eyes. But in response, the man delivered a brutal strike to his side.

CRACK!

In that instant, a thunderous crash echoed inside Geum San-gyeong's skull.

His mind went white.

He did not need to touch the injury to know. At least three or four ribs had been broken.

Geum San-gyeong vomited a mouthful of blood. The hand that was muffling his mouth was stained crimson.

Once more, the man's fist hammered into his side. The few ribs that had managed to survive shattered completely.

'P-Please… stop…'

Geum San-gyeong begged with his eyes. But the man ignored his desperate plea.

The man was truly terrifying.

His merciless brutality had broken Geum San-gyeong to his core.

Geum San-gyeong was not the sort of man to submit so easily to violence. But the silent brutality the man inflicted was dismantling his spirit from the foundation.

He had been so thoroughly destroyed that he could not even stand on his own. Only then did the man release the hand that had been covering his mouth. And then he asked:

"Who is your master?"

"W-What?"

"Your master."

The man was Dam Ho. Geum San-gyeong was one of the poison users who had been scattering toxins in the village before fleeing.

Geum San-gyeong wiggled the fingers hidden within his wide sleeve. He intended to use the poison concealed there to contaminate Dam Ho.

Instantly, Dam Ho's gaze turned glacial.

"You still have not learned your lesson."

Dam Ho seized Geum San-gyeong's fingers and applied force.

CRUNCH!

"AAAAH!"

Geum San-gyeong's five fingers were ground to a pulp, as though run through a millstone.

Dam Ho kicked his shin. The bone, hard as any, shattered like glass.

Geum San-gyeong's body crumpled helplessly.

Only then did he realize.

The man before him was not someone who could be measured by ordinary standards.

"I… I am…"

When Geum San-gyeong still hesitated, Dam Ho's gaze grew even colder. In that moment, Geum San-gyeong felt his heart drop, and his face drained of all color.

"We are subordinates of Lord Sa Woo-yeon."

"Sa Woo-yeon?"

"Yes! Within the Holy Sect, he is known as the Heaven Poison Emperor."

It had been difficult to open his mouth at first, but once he began, everything poured out with startling ease.

Geum San-gyeong confessed everything about his lord, Sa Woo-yeon.

In summary, Sa Woo-yeon was a poison human of ancient and rare standing who could wield countless toxins at will and whose very body was composed entirely of poison.

"I have told you everything. Now spare my life."

"Why should I?"

"I told you everything…"

"Did I promise to spare you?"

"You… you cannot be serious!"

"I never break a promise. But I never made any promise to you."

"You demonic… monster!"

"If you can kill others, then you too can die."

"Ugh!"

Geum San-gyeong launched himself forward in a frenzy, his mouth gaping wide. With his limbs broken, he intended to sink his teeth into Dam Ho's throat.

Just before his mouth reached Dam Ho's neck, something flashed at the edge of his vision.

Thud!

Then his head burst apart. Dam Ho's Single Yang Strike had obliterated it.

Dam Ho did not even glance at Geum San-gyeong's falling corpse. He turned on his heel and walked away.

The hunting dog was not merely Geum San-gyeong. Several more remained, and they were returning to their master, Sa Woo-yeon.

They struggled to conceal their tracks, but to Dam Ho's eyes, their trail was as clear as daylight.

Dam Ho hunted them by following their trail.

Sa Woo-yeon's subordinates were highly proficient in the use of poison, but in raw martial might, they were no match for Dam Ho whatsoever.

Before they could even deploy their toxins, they were subdued by Dam Ho. And then they met a wretched end.

Dam Ho's hands showed not the slightest shred of mercy. He hunted down Sa Woo-yeon's subordinates with ruthless efficiency.

"Ughhh!"

Yet another poison user perished at Dam Ho's hands.

Dam Ho hurled the corpse aside like a worn-out shoe and continued on.

Fsss!

At that moment, a sound so chilling it could make every hair on one's body stand on end echoed through the forest. A foul stench assaulted his nostrils.

Dam Ho's eyes deepened.

Simply inhaling the scent was enough to bring a throbbing ache to his head.

It was poison mist.

Dam Ho drew upon the Dark Soul Heart Method and blocked the external energy, then pressed forward. The closer he moved toward the source, the more potent the poison became.

For an ordinary person, inhaling this mist would be enough to induce vomiting of blood and death. The toxin it carried was that concentrated.

Dam Ho's pace gradually slowed. He was approaching the source.

Before him, the forest appeared to be writhing.

Hiss! Hiss!

It produced menacing sounds, as though it were a living creature.

'Snakes?'

Dam Ho recognized at a single glance the identity of the writhing forest.

Thousands upon thousands of snakes were coiled together. At their center sat the hawk-nosed old man, legs crossed.

Surrounded by more snakes than could be counted, the grotesque figure wore an expression of utter contentment. That composure made him all the more macabre.

Then, a man who had been standing at a distance from the old man cried out.

"That is him! He killed every last one of my comrades!"

He was the final survivor among Sa Woo-yeon's subordinates, having escaped Dam Ho's grasp.

At the man's voice, the old man's eyes snapped open. A terrifying killing intent erupted from his body.

The snakes surrounding him writhed in agony. The killing intent that radiated from the old man engulfed them. Overwhelmed, the snakes thrashed and tried to pull away.

CHRRR!

The serpents seized by the killing intent withered in an instant. Their flesh dried up, leaving only skin and bones. The venom they carried dispersed into the air before being drawn into the old man through his pores.

In a flash, the corpses of snakes lay piled around the old man like a mountain.

"Hah!"

The old man drew a deep breath, and the lingering toxins in the air were sucked entirely into his body.

The subordinate cried out again.

"My lord! He is undeniably a menace to the Holy Sect! You must execute him at once to protect the Holy—"

"Silence."

The old man waved his hand in annoyance.

Instantly, the subordinate's face drained of all color.

"Guh!"

His skin turned black. His eyes bulged, bloodshot, and foam spilled from his mouth. In the blink of an eye, he had been poisoned.

"My… my lord…"

"To think you would come fleeing back only to be this noisy. Tsk."

The old man did not so much as glance at his subordinate.

The man convulsed for a moment before his breath ceased entirely. The old man extinguishing a life with such casual indifference was terrifying to the point of being grotesque.

The old man's gaze turned to Dam Ho.

"And who might you be?"

"Dam Ho."

"Ho! The Fist Demon?"

"That's right."

"Judging by that reaction, you fancy yourself some kind of important figure. Tsk."

The old man—Heaven Poison Emperor Sa Woo-yeon—clicked his tongue.

A gleam of killing intent flickered in his eyes.

He had personally ended his subordinate's life, and yet his gaze held not a trace of guilt.

He had merely taught them a fraction of his poison techniques out of necessity. They were not his disciples.

His poison cultivation was so vast and profound that virtually no one was capable of mastering it. In truth, Sa Woo-yeon had wished to take on a disciple, but had yet to find anyone with sufficient talent. He had still not passed on his full legacy.

Given these circumstances, Sa Woo-yeon's pride in his poison techniques was beyond words.

CHRRR!

With a wave of his palm, Sa Woo-yeon conjured a powerful wind that swept away the snake carcasses around him. They scattered into dust.

The ground was revealed, and with it, the scene that had been hidden beneath.

There, where the snakes had covered everything, lay several corpses. They were emaciated like Sa Woo-yeon's subordinates, all vitality drained from their bodies.

The corpses were so damaged that their original forms were unrecognizable, but Dam Ho identified them instantly.

They were the Golden Guard Captain, Yu Jin-mun, and his subordinates.

These men, who had secretly fled the village to save their own lives, now lay here as worthless corpses.

Sa Woo-yeon bared his yellowed teeth and grinned.

"What? Are their deaths regrettable?"

"No."

"I thought as much. Fleeing to save one's own skin while abandoning one's comrades is not something a martial artist should do."

"They are not my comrades."

"Well, it matters not. You will die here regardless."

Sa Woo-yeon's eyes turned entirely black.

A chilling killing intent emanated from his body, combining with his toxic energy to seep into the surroundings.

And then—

WHAM!

Without warning, Sa Woo-yeon's head snapped backward. Dam Ho had launched an air strike that struck him squarely in the skull.

"Grrrr!"

Sa Woo-yeon, hair disheveled, turned his head back to glare at Dam Ho. His face was a mixture of disbelief, confusion, and fury.

Had it not been for the protective poison aura he wore around his body, that blow would have split his head open.

"You!"

"You talk too much."

The sea of toxic energy that had been engulfing the surroundings parted to both sides, centered on the path of Dam Ho's air strike.

Dam Ho stepped toward Sa Woo-yeon.

Thud! Thud!

His irregular gait sent an unsettling jolt through Sa Woo-yeon's heart.

No matter how fearsome the title of Fist Demon might be, by Sa Woo-yeon's standards, he was merely a cripple.

A cripple.

As a human, it was no disqualification. But when considered in the context of being a martial artist, it constituted a severe deficiency.

A martial artist was one who pursued ultimate perfection.

Neither body nor mind could afford even the slightest imperfection.

It was commonly said that to enter the realm of supreme advancement, body and mind must exist in harmony. If either fell out of balance, one could never reach that pinnacle.

From that perspective, Dam Ho was an extraordinarily peculiar existence.

A cripple whose physical balance was compromised had nonetheless forged his own school through the fist. More than merely establishing a school, he had achieved such mastery that he could inspire fear among the highest-ranking masters of the Murim.

He was fascinating enough that Sa Woo-yeon would have liked to study him, given the time.

The corners of Sa Woo-yeon's mouth curled upward.

A man who smiles and is terrifying.

When he smiled like this, the surrounding area became a field of death.

RUMBLE!

A dense cloud of toxic energy poured from his body.

"You will not die a clean death, I assure you."

The Heaven Poison Emperor, a poison human of legendary stature, released his toxin in a massive wave. The toxic energy surged toward Dam Ho like a tsunami.

In that instant, Dam Ho stamped his right foot.

BOOM!

A powerful tremor shook the earth.

Dam Ho's body advanced toward the massive fortress that was Sa Woo-yeon.

Charging Step, followed by the Fortress Breaking Strike—

BOOM!