Chapter 97 : Chapter 97

Chapter 97. Indomitable (1)

Perhaps because all my strength was gone after cutting the Human-faced spider's neck.

Thud.

My fallen body rolled on the ground.

A groan involuntarily escaped me from the pain that already covered my entire body.

Along with a dark stream of blood.

"Keuk."

Beyond my consciousness, which was threatening to fade again, I heard someone's urgent footsteps.

The footsteps quickly got closer.

I saw the faces of the Tang Clan guy and my junior sister.

"Senior Brother! Get a grip!"

"Miss Baek, please drag this guy towards Young Master Nam! If he stays here, he'll continue to be exposed to the poison qi flowing from that monster's corpse!"

As the Tang Clan guy gave a long instruction, my junior sister grabbed both my armpits with both hands and started to drag me.

"If he tries to lose consciousness, wake him up even if you have to slap his cheek! If that guy faints now, he'll definitely die!"

"O, okay!"

My junior sister answers the Tang Clan guy with teary eyes.

Since I couldn't make my innocent junior sister cry, it seemed I had to somehow hold onto my consciousness.

"Cough……. Where are you going now?"

I coughed up blood once and asked the Tang Clan guy.

After leaving me in my junior sister's care, the madman was approaching the corpse of the Human-faced spider.

Towards that place where the poison qi was still flowing, just as he had said.

"I'm on my way to get medicine to save a madman, so just shut up and stay put."

Beyond my blurred vision, I saw his strange behavior.

He took off his top and wrapped it around his hand like a glove.

Then he approached the severed neck of the Human-faced spider and shoved his cloth-wrapped right hand inside.

After fumbling around with his hand for a moment as if looking for something.

He quickly pulled out his right hand.

Between the piece of cloth melting in the Human-faced spider's saliva.

I saw the half-melted Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass.

He then used his movement arts and ran back this way.

In that short time, all the poison fluid of the Human-faced spider that was on the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass had evaporated and disappeared.

Instead, the size of the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass had also shrunk a little more.

"It might look dirty, but just shut up and eat this."

He held out that Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass to me.

"Don't do anything stupid like trying to increase your power, just use it to push out the poison qi. Got it?"

Did he see me as a moron who would be greedy for internal energy when I was at death's door?

I let out a hollow laugh and opened my mouth.

He shoves the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass into my mouth.

I chew a few times and then swallow it down my throat.

A hot energy flows down my throat.

My junior sister and the Tang Clan guy move my body and help me into a cross-legged position.

"Haa. Hooo."

I immediately begin to circulate my energy to heal my injuries.

I draw up the remaining internal energy in my dantian.

With that energy, I slowly push out the energy of the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass and guide it in the desired direction.

Towards the places all over my body where the poison qi has seeped in.

Chiiiiik.

It felt as if I could hear this sound from inside my body.

The fire qi and the poison qi clash and melt away.

"Hooo."

How long had it been since I had been exhaling, mixing the melted poison qi with each deep breath?

By the time both the poison qi that had seeped inside and the energy of the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass had completely disappeared.

I took a deep breath, exhaled, and opened my eyes.

"Haa. Hooo."

Nam Geon with teary eyes.

My junior sister with slightly swollen eyes letting out a sigh of relief.

I saw the figure of Dang Sopyeong shaking his head back and forth.

"A, are you okay. Bro?"

"Senior Brother. Have you completely pushed out the poison?"

I nodded at the two people's questions.

Then Dang Sopyeong said with a face full of annoyance.

"Congratulations. You kept going on about that resistance, and you've really hit the jackpot. You survived being poisoned by the Human-faced spider's poison, so now most poisons won't even work on you."

Although they were words of congratulations, his expression was not at all congratulatory.

As I seemed to have finished greeting the three of them, I finally opened my mouth.

"Then I think I'll faint for a bit."

With those words, my consciousness faded.

***

A groan involuntarily escaped me from the pain that felt like it was digging into my entire body.

"Knghhhhhh."

When I opened my eyes in pain, the sky was turning crimson.

How much time had passed?

As I tried to raise my upper body with such thoughts, I heard the voices of the party from nearby.

"S, stay still. Senior Brother!"

"B, bro, you shouldn't move yet!"

"Just please stay still for a bit."

It was a strange feeling.

Although I had protected the party from the monsters, for some reason, I felt like I was being treated as the eldest brother who was terribly disobedient.

Soon, the party members approached my side one by one.

"Where is this?"

"We're still at Heavenly Peak Ridge. We set up camp in a place with a gentle slope and easy access. It seems we'll have to stay here for a while anyway."

I nodded at my junior sister's answer and added.

"Could you just raise my upper body a little?"

At my question, my junior sister and Nam Geon look at Dang Sopyeong.

As Dang Sopyeong sighs and nods, my junior sister and Nam Geon raise my upper body.

As expected, a terrible pain rose from my entire body.

There was no poison qi left inside.

But it was only that the poison qi had been melted and pushed out.

The already damaged parts had not recovered.

I glanced down and carefully examined my entire body.

My whole body was wrapped in cloth.

There was probably also some medicinal herb applied inside.

"You can see for yourself with your own two eyes, but you'll have to recuperate for at least two months. In particular, give up on walking on your own two feet for a while."

As the Tang Clan guy said, the pain in my right thigh and left sole was particularly severe.

"Is two months the time it takes for both legs to heal?"

"That's right."

"That's a relief. It seems my upper body will heal faster."

"……Are you, by any chance, about to spout some crazy talk about training with just your upper body?"

"I don't know why you'd call something so obvious crazy."

"……Haa. What's the point of treatment. He's a guy who'll just cripple himself with his own hands anyway. Aish."

I willingly ignored it, as it was something I had heard to death from the Poison Immortal in my previous life.

Somehow, even though things had clearly changed from my previous life, that guy seemed to be the same.

Come to think of it, I had planned to slap that guy's cheek after hunting the Human-faced spider.

If that damn Poison Immortal had just told me about the Human-faced spider, I wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble.

Suddenly, I remembered the incident where that Tang Clan guy had approached the corpse of the Human-faced spider and taken out the remains of the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass.

I glanced over.

His right hand had changed as if it had been burned.

It seemed I would have to postpone slapping his cheek for another time.

For now, that guy was my lifesaver.

Perhaps because I thought of the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass.

An important problem that I had forgotten came to mind.

"I'm sorry. Junior Sister. Because of me, we can't make the pill anymore."

"What are you talking about. Senior Brother. Of course, survival comes before a spiritual herb. You being safe……."

My junior sister looked down at my state, her words trailing off, and then she changed them.

"No, I'm just glad you didn't die."

It seemed I didn't look very safe.

The Tang Clan guy interjected into the conversation.

"Don't be disappointed about the spiritual herb. We still have the Human-faced spider's poison core."

"That's a poison core, so isn't it poison to my junior sister?"

I wondered if that guy had gone crazy and was planning to turn my junior sister into a poison person.

Then the Tang Clan guy snorted.

"Even if it's a poison core, if you mix it well with other herbs and make it, you can neutralize the poison as much as possible."

Hmm.

The inner core of the Human-faced spider that the Poison Immortal of my previous life had eaten.

Of course, I had thought that guy would eat it all by himself again, but I wondered what was up.

As I looked at Dang Sopyeong with a curious gaze, he frowned and said.

"What?"

"You're learning poison arts, aren't you? Aren't you greedy for the poison core?"

"Do I look like a guy who's dying to die like you? It's only been about two months since I started learning poison arts. If I ate that now, my internal organs would melt instead of my internal energy increasing."

As I see it now, there was a rather rational reason.

Well.

It's not like that guy's temper would go anywhere.

At that moment, Nam Geon suddenly apologized to me.

"S, sorry bro. I, I wasn't any help. I, I'm useless."

"What are you talking about. Orabeoni."

"Miss Baek is right. If Young Master Nam did nothing, then we were just as useless."

"N, no. H, Hyang found a way to catch the monster spider. D, doctor bro treated bro. I, I'm the only one who did nothing."

"Orabeoni. By that logic, you took the hit from the Human-faced spider's silk for us, so we were able to move."

"My junior sister is right. Nam Geon. We caught that monster because we were together. Above all, if that thing's silk hadn't been stuck to your body, I wouldn't have been able to use the Hundred Yang Ten-Knot Grass."

"……I get it, bro."

Although he said he understood, his face was downcast.

I wanted to say something more, but sadly, I had no talent for comforting others.

It seemed better to change the subject.

I discreetly turned my head and looked around.

For some reason.

The sight of the mountain slope at sunset was so familiar.

"Junior Sister. Who suggested setting up camp here?"

"Young Master Dang suggested we do so, but……."

"Is there any problem with this place?"

The Tang Clan guy asks with a puzzled expression.

I felt like a hollow laugh would come out.

The place where the Tang Clan guy had stayed in Heavenly Peak Ridge in his previous life.

The scenery was exactly the same as the one seen from the flat bench in his residence.

That guy's taste was also truly consistent.

From his nagging, to choosing the location of his residence.

That guy hasn't changed one bit.

"There's no problem."

As I said so with a faint smile, the Tang Clan guy snorted and said.

"It's getting dark, so why don't we finish what we were doing? Tell that guy to just lie down and rest. There's nothing for him to do anyway."

"I understand. Young Master Dang."

"O, okay. Doctor bro."

Following the Tang Clan guy's words, the three of them began to move around busily.

My junior sister was cooking, and the Tang Clan guy and Nam Geon were building a dugout while talking about this and that.

Ah.

Only then did I realize.

That something had changed.

This place where that guy had lived alone his whole life.

This place where I would occasionally visit as a guest had now been transformed into a place where four people lived.

***

One day, about a fortnight later.

The top floor of a luxurious inn in Seongdo, Sichuan.

An old man dressed in black sat there alone, waiting for someone.

Before long, a commotion was heard from outside the inn.

The commotion continued inside the inn, and soon the door of the room the old man was occupying alone was thrown open.

The person who had come was a middle-aged man, and a few martial artists followed behind him as if escorting him.

"You all stay here."

The middle-aged man who had given the order strode confidently to the table where the old man was sitting.

A middle-aged man in his mid-fifties.

The head of the clan called the Sichuan Sword Clan, and the man called the First Sword of Sichuan.

Jang Muryong frowned and opened his mouth.

"How dare a mere underworld rat order me around. You must want to die."

A refined aura flowed from Jang Muryong's body.

That immense aura pressed down on the old man in black, and the luxuriously set table shook violently.

A feeling as if a sword was at his neck, even though no sword had been drawn.

Despite the pressure, the old man smiled leisurely.

At the same time, the aura that flowed from the old man's body scattered Jang Muryong's aura.

"Hohoho. Please understand. If I, the Chairman, were to visit the Sichuan Sword Clan directly, it would be inconvenient for you in many ways, wouldn't it?"

Although he was smiling like a slippery eel, the old man's eyes were extremely calm.

After a brief battle of wills, sending out their auras at each other.

Jang Muryong, realizing that he couldn't completely overwhelm his opponent with just his aura, clicked his tongue lightly and sat down.

"So, what brings the Unwol Sect Leader, who has been living in hiding, here?"

"Hohoho. Some rats from the Black Heaven Sect have flowed into this Sichuan, you see."

"To think the Chairman himself would step forward just to catch some rats. It seems the Unwol Sect is not what it used to be."

As Jang Muryong said so, a faint greed appeared in his eyes.

At the sight of him trying to take over the black market despite claiming to be a righteous faction, the Unwol Sect Leader smiled coldly and warned him.

"If things get bigger while dealing with the Black Heaven Sect rats, wouldn't it cause trouble for the Sichuan Sword Clan? I came to tell you that there is no need for the Sichuan Sword Clan to step in."

This was the first reason the Unwol Sect Leader had come to visit the Sichuan Sword Clan's head.

To warn them that they would handle it themselves, and if they interfered, aiming for some scraps, they would not be left alone.

"Do you look down on the great Sichuan Sword Clan? How dare the likes of the Unwol Sect give me an order."

Again, an intense wave of energy flowed from Jang Muryong.

The Unwol Sect Leader let the aura flow past him and opened his mouth.

He wasn't afraid of Jang Muryong, but he had no intention of making an enemy of the Sichuan Sword Clan.

Especially because of the second reason he had come to see this man.

"Hohoho. How could we possibly give an order to the Sichuan Sword Clan? Also, where would you find a merchant who fights with a customer?"

"How absurd. Since when was our Sichuan Sword Clan a customer of the Unwol Sect?"

"Oh dear. It seems I have misspoken. Hohoho."

"……It seems there are some who are secretly moving within the clan. I shall discipline the inside one day."

The Unwol Sect Leader just smiled gently.

It was obvious that they were the ones who had come to the black market on the order of the Sichuan Sword Clan's head, but he decided to pretend he knew nothing.

What was important wasn't that anyway.

"Internal discipline is an important matter. That is why I have come. I heard that a brat called the Ghost Sword Young Master kidnapped the head's youngest son."

Jang Muryong showed an openly displeased expression.

"Have you been investigating us?"

"Hohoho. An investigation, you say, that's absurd. More importantly, aren't you curious? About where that brat, the Ghost Sword Young Master, is?"

The second reason for visiting Jang Muryong.

It was for the sake of killing with a borrowed knife.

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.