Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Neigh!

Clip-clop, clip-clop.

Yong-myeong heard the horse leaving. Though his body was becoming increasingly stiff, his mind remained clear.

‘No. What are you trying to do!’

Just moments ago, Jin Ja-gang had dragged Yong-myeong off the road and into the forest path. Then he had concealed Yong-myeong with branches and leaves.

It couldn’t have been easy for a ten-year-old child to drag a full-grown adult, especially one who was injured, yet Jin Ja-gang had done so without making a single sound of complaint.

He had taken considerable time to meticulously arrange the surroundings.

Then suddenly, he mounted the horse and began heading back the way they had come.

‘What on earth is he thinking…’

Because his mind was clear, Yong-myeong felt all the more anxious.

He resented his own helplessness, unable to move even a finger due to the paralysis, forced to simply wait.

***

***

The pursuit team from the Extreme Poison Sect had begun tracking Yong-myeong and Jin Ja-gang.

Hidden Dragon Bell Sa Heung-sam, Longlao, and Relentless Dagger, who had previously lost Jin Ja-gang, had rejoined forces to lead the warriors.

“We must hurry to catch them before they leave Yunnan—if they make contact with outsiders, this will become much more troublesome!”

Sa Heung-sam, skilled in tracking, took command of the pursuit team. As Sa Heung-sam used his lightness skill to lead the way, Longlao, Relentless Dagger, and twenty Extreme Poison Sect warriors followed behind, also using lightness skills.

Considering that the Extreme Poison Sect had only about two hundred warriors in total, and less than half of them were properly trained in martial arts, they had committed a significant portion of their forces.

This was necessary because both Jin Ja-gang and Yong-myeong knew the true nature of the Extreme Poison Sect. They couldn’t allow the two to leave.

While Jin Ja-gang might be discounted due to his young age, Yong-myeong was the Vice Sect Leader of the Medicine King Sect and had considerable connections in the outside world. From the Extreme Poison Sect’s perspective, he was far more dangerous than Jin Ja-gang.

Moreover, the longer they remained unfound, the more likely the Martial Arts Alliance’s Yunnan Branch would intervene, potentially leading to the worst-case scenario of interference in the Extreme Poison Sect’s internal affairs.

For Miao Ligoujao, the leader of the Extreme Poison Sect, this was something that had to be prevented at all costs, which is why he had deployed such a large pursuit team.

After riding for between half and one shichen, they spotted something approaching from ahead. Sa Heung-sam’s eyes gleamed strangely.

“Hmm?”

Neigh!

Incredibly, it was an empty horse with no rider.

The warriors looked to Sa Heung-sam for direction.

The look meant “what should we do?”

“Stop it.”

Sa Heung-sam gave the order.

One of the Extreme Poison Sect warriors nimbly used his lightness skill to jump onto the running horse. Then, grabbing the reins, he brought the horse to a halt.

“Whoa, whoa.”

The warrior who had mounted the horse patted its mane, stroking it gently.

Snort! The horse shook itself.

Relentless Dagger’s expression turned peculiar as he observed the horse.

“That’s the horse they were riding!”

“Hmm?”

Why would the horse that Yong-myeong and Jin Ja-gang had been riding return?

“Did they abandon the horse and flee?”

At Sa Heung-sam’s words, Relentless Dagger shook his head.

“That’s unlikely. My dagger pierced them both, so they should be poisoned. To get as far away as possible, they would need the horse.”

“But if the poisoning worsened, they might have reached a state where they could no longer ride.”

“Hmm, you’re right. That’s also a possibility.”

As Sa Heung-sam and Relentless Dagger conversed, they noticed that the warrior who had mounted the horse was examining his hand.

“What’s the matter?”

The warrior smiled sheepishly.

“It’s nothing. I think I got pricked by a thorn while grabbing the reins…”

“A thorn?”

What an unexpected thing to mention.

But the warrior’s face suddenly turned pale.

He clutched his chest and fell from the horse.

Thud!

“Huk, huk, huk, huk.”

“What the!”

The fallen warrior rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

“Kkeuk, kkeuk!”

Other warriors rushed forward in alarm, but Longlao stepped in to block them.

“Stand back.”

Longlao was a master of poisons. Instinctively recognizing poison at work, the warriors hastily retreated.

Longlao was a stout elderly man with a short mustache and a topknot, carrying a small box shaped like a book chest that scholars use to carry books.

Longlao took deerskin gloves from his sleeve and put them on.

Then he grabbed the warrior’s wrist and carefully checked his pulse. Sa Heung-sam and Relentless Dagger approached, summoning their internal energy.

“Is it poison?”

“That’s right.”

“What kind of poison is it?”

Longlao looked at them as if their question was absurd.

“Well now, when someone is poisoned, shouldn’t we first determine if they can be saved? Isn’t that the proper order?”

Sa Heung-sam didn’t respond. He knew that Longlao’s words didn’t come from any concern for human life or a kind disposition.

“It seems I can’t save him.”

At Longlao’s words, Relentless Dagger expressed disbelief.

“Is the poisoning severe?”

“That’s part of it, but I don’t yet know what poison it is.”

“If it’s a type of poison even you don’t recognize…”

“My, what an impatient fellow you are. I can only know for certain what poison it is after he dies, so let’s wait until then.”

The poisoned warrior heard this and desperately gripped Longlao’s collar.

“Kkeuk, kkeuk!”

Longlao used his internal energy to press down on the warrior’s hand, causing it to twist and fall away from his clothing.

Longlao looked at Relentless Dagger and said:

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I heard that this child uses poison. If we can’t identify this poison, we could all be in danger, which is why I’m doing this.”

Relentless Dagger retreated with a bitter smile.

The poisoned warrior continued to foam at the mouth, writhing in agony, but Longlao paid no heed.

“Kek, kek!”

Not long after, the poisoned warrior even lost control of his bladder, with blood mixing in his urine.

Longlao examined the warrior again. He looked at the puncture site, checked his rolled-back eyes, and peered into his mouth.

“Ulcers have formed on the skin where he was pricked, his mouth is dry. There’s a garlic-like smell from his mouth, and he’s passing bloody urine…”

Longlao nodded.

“As I’ve been told, it’s arsenic. Moreover, it’s an extremely potent arsenic capable of causing acute poisoning. How did he obtain such a thing?”

By this time, the poisoned warrior had died.

“Tsk, tsk, what a waste of talent.”

Longlao muttered to himself as he approached the horse. Carefully examining the reins, he picked out a crushed fragment of a plant that had been attached to them.

“It’s deadly nightshade. He pulled out thorns from deadly nightshade, coated them with poison, and planted them in the reins.”

Sa Heung-sam frowned.

“Is he threatening us not to follow?”

Longlao laughed heartily.

“A threat means he has a problem. Such potent arsenic is difficult to obtain even in our Extreme Poison Sect. He’s probably almost out of poison.”

Several warriors sighed in relief. Poison was both troublesome and dangerous, making them nervous during pursuit. Hearing that there wasn’t much poison left was reassuring.

Sa Heung-sam moved the dead warrior’s body to the roadside and gestured to the warriors.

“From now on, if you spot anything suspicious, don’t overlook it—report everything.”

“Yes!”

Sa Heung-sam slightly reduced the pursuit team’s pace.

Judging by the horse’s condition, he estimated they could catch up within half a day at most… However, the pursuit team had to stop again shortly after.

“There are traces of them ahead!”

Plants were pressed down in the bushes by the roadside, as if someone had been lying there.

“Check it.”

One warrior carefully approached and examined the spot.

“Judging from the sap that has seeped into the plants, it seems recent. The size suggests it was a child, not an adult, who was lying here. And…”

Something was carved on a tree next to where the traces were found.

The warrior approached to read the strange writing carved into the tree.

Suddenly, the warrior felt a sharp pain in the sole of his foot and jumped up.

“Ack!”

There was a throwing dagger embedded in the warrior’s foot. The dagger had been planted upside down in the ground.

It was the very dagger that Relentless Dagger had embedded in Jin Ja-gang’s abdomen.

“Keuuk!”

The warrior gritted his teeth and immediately pulled out the dagger. He then took out medicine from his pocket and tried to consume it, but collapsed before he could do so.

The warrior began to convulse.

Longlao approached to check.

“It’s arsenic poison again.”

Sa Heung-sam’s face wrinkled with displeasure.

Relentless Dagger asked Longlao:

“Is there no antidote for arsenic?”

“The arsenic this boy uses has a completely different potency than any arsenic we’ve known before. If I knew the composition ratio of this arsenic, I might be able to prepare an antidote, but this isn’t my laboratory, so there’s nothing I can do right now. Our only option is to take the antidote from him.”

Longlao shook his head.

Indeed, wasn’t this the poison that had even killed formidable masters like Bloody Hand and Great Desert Saber?

“This doesn’t bode well.”

Sa Heung-sam issued orders to the pursuit team with an uncomfortable expression.

“Continue forward.”

Sa Heung-sam began to think that this pursuit might be more challenging than expected.

The pursuit team stopped again not long after.

“There are traces of someone pushing through the forest path!”

There was a thicket of dense vines by the roadside.

Very clearly, there were signs that someone had forced their way through the vines, breaking and snapping branches along the way.

“To anyone…”

Relentless Dagger swallowed his words.

It was as if someone had deliberately left signs saying, ‘I went this way.’

Sa Heung-sam examined the road and saw horse hoofprints overlapping in both directions.

This meant the horse had gone further ahead and then returned.

Yet how could they know if this was a trick? Jin Ja-gang and Yong-myeong might have dismounted here and the horse continued forward before returning, or they might have ridden ahead, returned, and then fled into the mountain path from here.

Either way, they had to check.

“Verify it!”

Sa Heung-sam designated one of the warriors for the task. A bearded warrior stepped forward.

Though his internal energy was only at the half-gapja level, he had the deepest internal energy among the warriors.

The bearded warrior put on pigskin gloves. Though inferior to deerskin gloves, they still provided some protection against poison.

The bearded warrior cautiously entered the vines. The trail through the vines was so obvious that there was no reason to lose the path.

The bearded warrior pushed aside the clinging vine branches as he proceeded, then stopped. He turned back with an incredulous expression and reported:

“The traces end just one zhang ahead. Beyond that, there is no sign of human presence, only dense undergrowth. There are no signs of damage at all.”

This meant there were only traces of someone starting to push through the vines and then stopping. Perhaps they had started to go through the vines but changed their mind and turned back?

Sa Heung-sam snorted.

“Is he trying to waste our time?”

But it seemed more than a simple delaying tactic. The bearded warrior who had entered the vines suddenly collapsed as he was walking back.

“Keok!”

Thud!

The bearded warrior fell forward and continued to gasp for breath as if experiencing respiratory distress.

He tried to resist by summoning his internal energy, but this only intensified the pain. Instantly, blood vessels burst in his eyes, turning them crimson.

When Longlao approached, he saw that the warrior’s hands were fine thanks to the pigskin gloves, but the issue was his face and neck, which had been scratched by the vine thorns. Already, the scratched areas were swollen with ulcers forming.

Longlao examined the vines. The vines had a round hole through them as if someone had passed through.

A faint sulfurous smell emanated from all the vines.

The boy had boldly spread poison over the entire thicket of vines!

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Neigh!

Clip-clop, clip-clop.

Yong-myeong heard the horse leaving. Though his body was becoming increasingly stiff, his mind remained clear.

‘No. What are you trying to do!’

Just moments ago, Jin Ja-gang had dragged Yong-myeong off the road and into the forest path. Then he had concealed Yong-myeong with branches and leaves.

It couldn’t have been easy for a ten-year-old child to drag a full-grown adult, especially one who was injured, yet Jin Ja-gang had done so without making a single sound of complaint.

He had taken considerable time to meticulously arrange the surroundings.

Then suddenly, he mounted the horse and began heading back the way they had come.

‘What on earth is he thinking…’

Because his mind was clear, Yong-myeong felt all the more anxious.

He resented his own helplessness, unable to move even a finger due to the paralysis, forced to simply wait.

***

***

The pursuit team from the Extreme Poison Sect had begun tracking Yong-myeong and Jin Ja-gang.

Hidden Dragon Bell Sa Heung-sam, Longlao, and Relentless Dagger, who had previously lost Jin Ja-gang, had rejoined forces to lead the warriors.

“We must hurry to catch them before they leave Yunnan—if they make contact with outsiders, this will become much more troublesome!”

Sa Heung-sam, skilled in tracking, took command of the pursuit team. As Sa Heung-sam used his lightness skill to lead the way, Longlao, Relentless Dagger, and twenty Extreme Poison Sect warriors followed behind, also using lightness skills.

Considering that the Extreme Poison Sect had only about two hundred warriors in total, and less than half of them were properly trained in martial arts, they had committed a significant portion of their forces.

This was necessary because both Jin Ja-gang and Yong-myeong knew the true nature of the Extreme Poison Sect. They couldn’t allow the two to leave.

While Jin Ja-gang might be discounted due to his young age, Yong-myeong was the Vice Sect Leader of the Medicine King Sect and had considerable connections in the outside world. From the Extreme Poison Sect’s perspective, he was far more dangerous than Jin Ja-gang.

Moreover, the longer they remained unfound, the more likely the Martial Arts Alliance’s Yunnan Branch would intervene, potentially leading to the worst-case scenario of interference in the Extreme Poison Sect’s internal affairs.

For Miao Ligoujao, the leader of the Extreme Poison Sect, this was something that had to be prevented at all costs, which is why he had deployed such a large pursuit team.

After riding for between half and one shichen, they spotted something approaching from ahead. Sa Heung-sam’s eyes gleamed strangely.

“Hmm?”

Neigh!

Incredibly, it was an empty horse with no rider.

The warriors looked to Sa Heung-sam for direction.

The look meant “what should we do?”

“Stop it.”

Sa Heung-sam gave the order.

One of the Extreme Poison Sect warriors nimbly used his lightness skill to jump onto the running horse. Then, grabbing the reins, he brought the horse to a halt.

“Whoa, whoa.”

The warrior who had mounted the horse patted its mane, stroking it gently.

Snort! The horse shook itself.

Relentless Dagger’s expression turned peculiar as he observed the horse.

“That’s the horse they were riding!”

“Hmm?”

Why would the horse that Yong-myeong and Jin Ja-gang had been riding return?

“Did they abandon the horse and flee?”

At Sa Heung-sam’s words, Relentless Dagger shook his head.

“That’s unlikely. My dagger pierced them both, so they should be poisoned. To get as far away as possible, they would need the horse.”

“But if the poisoning worsened, they might have reached a state where they could no longer ride.”

“Hmm, you’re right. That’s also a possibility.”

As Sa Heung-sam and Relentless Dagger conversed, they noticed that the warrior who had mounted the horse was examining his hand.

“What’s the matter?”

The warrior smiled sheepishly.

“It’s nothing. I think I got pricked by a thorn while grabbing the reins…”

“A thorn?”

What an unexpected thing to mention.

But the warrior’s face suddenly turned pale.

He clutched his chest and fell from the horse.

Thud!

“Huk, huk, huk, huk.”

“What the!”

The fallen warrior rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

“Kkeuk, kkeuk!”

Other warriors rushed forward in alarm, but Longlao stepped in to block them.

“Stand back.”

Longlao was a master of poisons. Instinctively recognizing poison at work, the warriors hastily retreated.

Longlao was a stout elderly man with a short mustache and a topknot, carrying a small box shaped like a book chest that scholars use to carry books.

Longlao took deerskin gloves from his sleeve and put them on.

Then he grabbed the warrior’s wrist and carefully checked his pulse. Sa Heung-sam and Relentless Dagger approached, summoning their internal energy.

“Is it poison?”

“That’s right.”

“What kind of poison is it?”

Longlao looked at them as if their question was absurd.

“Well now, when someone is poisoned, shouldn’t we first determine if they can be saved? Isn’t that the proper order?”

Sa Heung-sam didn’t respond. He knew that Longlao’s words didn’t come from any concern for human life or a kind disposition.

“It seems I can’t save him.”

At Longlao’s words, Relentless Dagger expressed disbelief.

“Is the poisoning severe?”

“That’s part of it, but I don’t yet know what poison it is.”

“If it’s a type of poison even you don’t recognize…”

“My, what an impatient fellow you are. I can only know for certain what poison it is after he dies, so let’s wait until then.”

The poisoned warrior heard this and desperately gripped Longlao’s collar.

“Kkeuk, kkeuk!”

Longlao used his internal energy to press down on the warrior’s hand, causing it to twist and fall away from his clothing.

Longlao looked at Relentless Dagger and said:

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I heard that this child uses poison. If we can’t identify this poison, we could all be in danger, which is why I’m doing this.”

Relentless Dagger retreated with a bitter smile.

The poisoned warrior continued to foam at the mouth, writhing in agony, but Longlao paid no heed.

“Kek, kek!”

Not long after, the poisoned warrior even lost control of his bladder, with blood mixing in his urine.

Longlao examined the warrior again. He looked at the puncture site, checked his rolled-back eyes, and peered into his mouth.

“Ulcers have formed on the skin where he was pricked, his mouth is dry. There’s a garlic-like smell from his mouth, and he’s passing bloody urine…”

Longlao nodded.

“As I’ve been told, it’s arsenic. Moreover, it’s an extremely potent arsenic capable of causing acute poisoning. How did he obtain such a thing?”

By this time, the poisoned warrior had died.

“Tsk, tsk, what a waste of talent.”

Longlao muttered to himself as he approached the horse. Carefully examining the reins, he picked out a crushed fragment of a plant that had been attached to them.

“It’s deadly nightshade. He pulled out thorns from deadly nightshade, coated them with poison, and planted them in the reins.”

Sa Heung-sam frowned.

“Is he threatening us not to follow?”

Longlao laughed heartily.

“A threat means he has a problem. Such potent arsenic is difficult to obtain even in our Extreme Poison Sect. He’s probably almost out of poison.”

Several warriors sighed in relief. Poison was both troublesome and dangerous, making them nervous during pursuit. Hearing that there wasn’t much poison left was reassuring.

Sa Heung-sam moved the dead warrior’s body to the roadside and gestured to the warriors.

“From now on, if you spot anything suspicious, don’t overlook it—report everything.”

“Yes!”

Sa Heung-sam slightly reduced the pursuit team’s pace.

Judging by the horse’s condition, he estimated they could catch up within half a day at most… However, the pursuit team had to stop again shortly after.

“There are traces of them ahead!”

Plants were pressed down in the bushes by the roadside, as if someone had been lying there.

“Check it.”

One warrior carefully approached and examined the spot.

“Judging from the sap that has seeped into the plants, it seems recent. The size suggests it was a child, not an adult, who was lying here. And…”

Something was carved on a tree next to where the traces were found.

The warrior approached to read the strange writing carved into the tree.

Suddenly, the warrior felt a sharp pain in the sole of his foot and jumped up.

“Ack!”

There was a throwing dagger embedded in the warrior’s foot. The dagger had been planted upside down in the ground.

It was the very dagger that Relentless Dagger had embedded in Jin Ja-gang’s abdomen.

“Keuuk!”

The warrior gritted his teeth and immediately pulled out the dagger. He then took out medicine from his pocket and tried to consume it, but collapsed before he could do so.

The warrior began to convulse.

Longlao approached to check.

“It’s arsenic poison again.”

Sa Heung-sam’s face wrinkled with displeasure.

Relentless Dagger asked Longlao:

“Is there no antidote for arsenic?”

“The arsenic this boy uses has a completely different potency than any arsenic we’ve known before. If I knew the composition ratio of this arsenic, I might be able to prepare an antidote, but this isn’t my laboratory, so there’s nothing I can do right now. Our only option is to take the antidote from him.”

Longlao shook his head.

Indeed, wasn’t this the poison that had even killed formidable masters like Bloody Hand and Great Desert Saber?

“This doesn’t bode well.”

Sa Heung-sam issued orders to the pursuit team with an uncomfortable expression.

“Continue forward.”

Sa Heung-sam began to think that this pursuit might be more challenging than expected.

The pursuit team stopped again not long after.

“There are traces of someone pushing through the forest path!”

There was a thicket of dense vines by the roadside.

Very clearly, there were signs that someone had forced their way through the vines, breaking and snapping branches along the way.

“To anyone…”

Relentless Dagger swallowed his words.

It was as if someone had deliberately left signs saying, ‘I went this way.’

Sa Heung-sam examined the road and saw horse hoofprints overlapping in both directions.

This meant the horse had gone further ahead and then returned.

Yet how could they know if this was a trick? Jin Ja-gang and Yong-myeong might have dismounted here and the horse continued forward before returning, or they might have ridden ahead, returned, and then fled into the mountain path from here.

Either way, they had to check.

“Verify it!”

Sa Heung-sam designated one of the warriors for the task. A bearded warrior stepped forward.

Though his internal energy was only at the half-gapja level, he had the deepest internal energy among the warriors.

The bearded warrior put on pigskin gloves. Though inferior to deerskin gloves, they still provided some protection against poison.

The bearded warrior cautiously entered the vines. The trail through the vines was so obvious that there was no reason to lose the path.

The bearded warrior pushed aside the clinging vine branches as he proceeded, then stopped. He turned back with an incredulous expression and reported:

“The traces end just one zhang ahead. Beyond that, there is no sign of human presence, only dense undergrowth. There are no signs of damage at all.”

This meant there were only traces of someone starting to push through the vines and then stopping. Perhaps they had started to go through the vines but changed their mind and turned back?

Sa Heung-sam snorted.

“Is he trying to waste our time?”

But it seemed more than a simple delaying tactic. The bearded warrior who had entered the vines suddenly collapsed as he was walking back.

“Keok!”

Thud!

The bearded warrior fell forward and continued to gasp for breath as if experiencing respiratory distress.

He tried to resist by summoning his internal energy, but this only intensified the pain. Instantly, blood vessels burst in his eyes, turning them crimson.

When Longlao approached, he saw that the warrior’s hands were fine thanks to the pigskin gloves, but the issue was his face and neck, which had been scratched by the vine thorns. Already, the scratched areas were swollen with ulcers forming.

Longlao examined the vines. The vines had a round hole through them as if someone had passed through.

A faint sulfurous smell emanated from all the vines.

The boy had boldly spread poison over the entire thicket of vines!

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