Chapter 15 : Chapter 15

Chapter 15. I’ll Give You a Good Punch (2)

A terrifying explosion of poison energy.

Until now, there had been several times in Dang Seoyeon’s life when she couldn't handle her energy and went rampant.

Each time, the Anbi squad and the Clan Head himself had stepped in to calm her energy. But…….

“Get…… Get back!”

“Everyone, retreat!”

The members of the Anbi squad, who had calmed her rampages several times, also hastily retreated.

The moment they felt the erupting energy, they realized.

That was not something they could handle.

They didn’t have the special equipment they usually used to subdue her, but even if they did, the result would not have changed.

Ssssssssss……

The rapidly spreading poison energy caused the plants and trees to wither with just a touch.

The area around her was turning into a space of death.

“What is happening?”

The Clan Head, who had arrived at the scene in a hurry.

Dang Jin saw him and said urgently.

“Father. Are you alright?”

“I am not important right now.”

The Clan Head said firmly.

It seemed he had suffered considerable injuries here and there on his body, but none were fatal.

The Clan Head, who had dealt with all the traitors of the Tang Clan and hurried to this place…….

“Has Seoyeon gone rampant?”

“Yes. That’s right. I don’t know why, but suddenly……”

“Umm……”

The Clan Head bit his lip hard and looked ahead.

Usually, when Dang Seoyeon went rampant, he would subdue her energy. But…….

‘Can I do it now?’

The poison energy spreading from his daughter’s body was stronger than ever before.

And right now, he had consumed eighty percent of his internal energy and had not even had a chance to regulate his breathing as he rushed here.

‘No, even if I were in perfect condition…….’

It would be impossible to handle that ridiculous amount of poison energy. If he had to pick one fortunate thing…….

‘It’s that this place is sparsely populated.’

If Dang Seoyeon had unleashed that energy inside the Tang Clan, the majority of the clan would not have escaped death.

“First, we need to seal off this area. And wait until Seoyeon’s energy subsides……”

It was then.

The rampaging poison energy extended as if it had a will of its own. Its target was…….

“Huh?”

It was Dang Jin.

Dang Jin was flustered by the sudden turn of events.

A moment of life and death.

The fortunate thing was that the Clan Head was by his side.

“Move!”

The Clan Head pushed his son away and extended his hand towards the poison energy.

Pooooow!

The Clan Head’s palm strike, which he extended by squeezing out all his remaining internal energy, barely pushed the poison energy back. But…….

“Keuk……”

“Father!”

The Clan Head vomited blood and was pushed back.

Dang Jin shouted upon seeing that.

To his son, the Clan Head yelled.

“Get a hold of yourself. It’s not over yet.”

He was right.

The poison energy began to attack everything in the vicinity indiscriminately.

“Aaargh!”

“Kuaaak!”

Those engulfed by the poison energy spreading in all directions scream and collapse, vomiting blood from their seven orifices.

The members of the Red Serpent Squad who couldn't escape and were cautiously watching, and even the members of the Sichuan Tang Clan’s Anbi squad.

Everyone present here was a target.

Dang Jin was no exception.

He was about to instinctively throw himself away from the attack coming towards him, but then he gritted his teeth.

‘I can’t dodge.’

If he dodged here, his father, who had exhausted his true qi, would be hit. In that case…….

“Hup!”

He gathered his true qi with the resolve to die.

“Cough……. What are you doing? Move!”

His father shouted shrilly from the side, but Dang Jin did not back down.

Even if he died, he would die before his father. That was the way of the Tang Clan, no…….

‘The proper way for a person to be.’

A deadly wave of poison energy descends upon Dang Jin. Dang Jin pushes both hands, which are by his sides, forward simultaneously with a double palm strike…….

Pooooow!

Before he could extend them, a man appeared and blew away the poison energy with a refreshing strike that felt like it would punch a hole in his chest.

“Are you alright?”

It was Han Cheong-un.

Dang Jin, overwhelmed by the sight that was so welcome it brought tears to his eyes, shouted without realizing.

“Grand Master Han!”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

The two of them looked bewildered at the same time.

‘What did he just call me?’

‘What did I just call him?’

The two bewildered men. But…….

“Look ahead. You dimwits!”

The situation was not good enough to leisurely resolve their curiosity. At the Clan Head’s tearing shout, Han Cheong-un looked forward again.

What unfolded before his eyes was…….

“Tsk.”

A wave of poison energy that rose higher than a person’s height. The moment he faced that attack, which rushed in with terrifying momentum, Han Cheong-un took a stance. And then…….

[ Celestial Pole Eight Trigrams Spear: Flaming Wave of Fury ]

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!

Thrust, thrust, and thrust without rest.

He couldn't stop the spear for even a moment.

He burned away the poison energy with the Yang energy of intense heat gathered at the tip of his spear, pushing back the massive wave of poison energy.

With the ceaseless sound of air being torn, the deadly wave of poison energy gradually loses its strength and subsides. And finally…….

“Haaaaaap!”

Pooooooow!

Han Cheong-un, who had cleared away all the poison energy, heaved his shoulders and caught his ragged breath.

‘This is tough.’

It felt like his arm was going to fall off.

He had also consumed a great deal of internal energy and stamina.

But even with such a desperate attack, he had only managed to clear away about one-tenth of that massive poison energy.

Even then, the consumed poison energy rose again, recovering its previous scale.

Still, he had succeeded in creating some distance, at least temporarily. Han Cheong-un looked at Dang Jin and Dang Myeong and said.

“Are you two alright?”

“Thanks to you, yes. But……”

The Clan Head looked at the poison energy that was slowly creeping back and said.

“It seems to be dangerous.”

“I agree.”

Han Cheong-un nodded.

The poison energy moves to one side.

Not this way.

But it was definitely not a relief. The direction the poison energy was currently moving in, if you went straight that way…….

“Chengdu?”

Han Cheong-un’s face turned pale.

If Dang Seoyeon went to Chengdu now, a massacre far more terrible than the Guizhou Bloodshed Incident would occur.

The Clan Head, who also knew this, forced himself to stand up and said.

“Move aside. I will resolve this.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“……”

The Clan Head didn't answer.

But Han Cheong-un knew instinctively. What that man was about to do.

“Are you planning to kill Young Lady Dang?”

“That is the duty I must bear as a father.”

“……”

I know.

I know better than anyone.

In his life before regression, the one who had shouldered that role was his right-hand man and a blood relative of the Tang Clan, Dang Jin.

[I’m sorry. Seoyeon, please never forgive this foolish older brother of yours.]

Dang Jin, who had pierced his younger sister’s heart with a single strike he extended. He buried his younger sister with his own hands.

In front of the grave he made, he wailed and endlessly apologized to his sister, weeping.

‘I came here to prevent that tragedy from repeating, and it’s going to repeat again?’

Han Cheong-un grabbed the Clan Head’s shoulder to stop him and said.

“You can’t. Clan Head.”

“Move aside. There is no other way.”

“Isn’t it the same for you, Clan Head?”

“What did you say?”

“Can you, Clan Head, who are too exhausted to even shake off my hand, stop Young Lady Dang?”

The Clan Head bit his lip for a moment.

What Han Cheong-un said was true.

Even if he intended to perish together with his daughter with a desperate resolve, it was doubtful if he could do it with his current body. But…….

“Move aside. Even if I can’t stop her, if I take my own life, that child’s anger might subside a little.”

“What did you say?”

“If that child’s anger can be appeased with my one life, I have no regrets. So……”

“Clan Head. Young Lady Dang is currently under the control of a soul-subduing art.”

“What?”

The Clan Head looked at Han Cheong-un in shock. And Han Cheong-un sighed and said as if he had no choice.

“Right before the poison energy went rampant, I heard the sound of a bell that subdues a person’s spirit.”

“……”

“It’s the work of a guy called the Ghost Spirit Taoist. He subdues a person’s spirit and makes them his puppet.”

The Clan Head looked at Han Cheong-un with a blank expression.

A soul-subduing art? Was such a thing really possible?

Because he was the Clan Head with rich experience in the Murim world, he couldn’t easily accept a reality that was beyond his knowledge. No, more than that…….

“How on earth do you know that?”

“That is……”

He couldn’t tell him.

Even if he said he was someone who had lived one life and regressed, there was no way he would be believed.

It was a story even more absurd than the soul-subduing art.

Honestly, if Han Cheong-un were in the Clan Head’s position, he wouldn’t believe himself either. But…….

“Father, let’s trust Young Master Han’s words.”

“Jin?”

“I heard the bell sound too. The moment I heard that sound, both I and the members of the Anbi squad felt an intense headache.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes. And so far, there has been no sign of Young Master Han deceiving or using us. Him……”

Dang Jin looked at Han Cheong-un, looked him straight in the eyes, and said.

“Let’s trust him.”

At Dang Jin’s words, the Clan Head squeezed his eyes shut and pondered for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and said to Han Cheong-un.

“What do you need us to do?”

He decided to trust his son’s judgment rather than his own.

Unlike himself, who had been blinded by the elders’ machinations and played into their hands, he decided to trust his son's judgment, who had been rebellious towards the clan but had not abandoned the path of humanity.

***

On the road to Chengdu.

Han Cheong-un, standing in the middle of it, steeled his resolve as he watched the massive poison energy slowly approaching from beyond.

“I have no choice but to try.”

Han Cheong-un, who came to Sichuan to prevent the Guizhou Bloodshed Incident and the tragedy that befell his former deputy, Dang Jin.

Originally, he thought that Dang Seoyeon’s personal grudge from suffering due to the Myriad Poisons Body was the cause of the rampage.

But it wasn’t.

She was not a person who could harbor enough malice to kill all her blood relatives.

So he thought there was an external factor and watched the situation after applying the tracking incense.

And as expected.

He found out that the Poison Hand Gate was involved in this matter, and Han Cheong-un thought he had finally found the cause of the Guizhou Bloodshed Incident. But…….

‘That was also my miscalculation.’

Behind this affair was the Ghost Spirit Taoist.

That terrifying monster.

A monster whose name was on the top of the Murim Alliance’s list of assassination targets for the longest time throughout the two Righteous-Demonic Wars.

Even Han Cheong-un, who had fought at the forefront leading the Evil-Annihilating Squad, did not know the exact identity of the Ghost Spirit Taoist.

His name, age, and even his gender were unknown.

The only thing known was that he was a strategist who controlled the Eight Gates of the Evil Way from the shadows and a Taoist proficient in evil arts. One of his specialties was the soul-subduing art using the sound of a bell.

When his thoughts reached that point, all his questions were solved in a flash.

Why did the Guizhou Bloodshed Incident happen?

After that, why did Dang Seoyeon become a great star of slaughter, wandering around and massacring numerous common people?

All those questions were answered.

“It’s a fact I didn’t know until I died before. I’ve learned the truth like this.”

Han Cheong-un sighed. Dang Jin approached him and said.

“Young Master Han, I’ve brought it.”

What Dang Jin held out was a secret elixir of the Tang Clan.

Divine Immortal’s Tear.

It was the Tang Clan’s best elixir, which would greatly increase one’s internal energy and strengthen the five organs when consumed.

But this Divine Immortal’s Tear had another use.

After consuming it, if one accepted the elixir’s energy into the body without absorbing it as internal energy, the consumer’s body would temporarily become close to being immune to all poisons.

It was giving up the chance to increase one’s internal energy to gain a near-invincible resistance to poison temporarily.

Of course, looking back on the long history of the Tang Clan, the number of people who had used the Divine Immortal’s Tear in such a way could be counted on one hand.

Wasn’t the elixir too precious for that? But…….

“How long do the effects last?”

“According to the records, about half a quarter-hour. But there are individual differences, so it could be shorter.”

“I understand.”

Han Cheong-un was about to do that precious thing right now.

Because this was the only way to save Dang Seoyeon.

‘Half a quarter-hour…….’

He had to settle the score within that half a quarter-hour.

Han Cheong-un, who received the elixir with a desperate resolve.

To him, Dang Jin politely cupped his fist and said.

“Young Master Han, please take care of my sister.”

“Trust me and leave it to me.”

And Han Cheong-un looked at the slowly approaching poison energy and steeled his resolve.

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