If You Are The Opponent, I Should Yield. (4)

Tuuuuuuung!

The moment he heard the impact sounds erupting from ahead, Lee Ja-Yang flinched.

‘Is this the young monk Hae Yeon?’

His eyes trembled violently.

Strong. No, the word ‘strong’ alone doesn’t do it justice.

And it wasn’t just Hae Yeon.

Namgung Do-Wei’s skill also far exceeded what he had imagined.

Before the power they displayed, all he could do was shudder.

‘This much…….’

The gap was so vast he couldn’t even feel jealousy.

Of course, those people had always been regarded as a different calibre even among numerous later-stage talents, carrying the world’s expectations on their shoulders.

So it would be difficult to compare them to him.

But what shocked him so much was that they had become this strong in only a few years.

The most astonishing thing was that the gap had widened so enormously in such a short time.

‘At the worldly martial tournament, it was never this bad.’

They were certainly strong even then.

So much so that winning against them was out of the question.

But clearly the difference was never this extreme.

If one trained steadily over time, one could at least hope to eventually face them on equal footing.

But the martial void Hae Yeon and Namgung Do-Wei demonstrated utterly shattered Lee Ja-Yang’s hopes.

While he had been running diligently, they had become so distant it was as if they were flying in the sky, out of sight.

‘What on earth happened in those few years?’

Saying they were simply born with different talent didn’t explain it.

“Run faster!”

“Get inside!”

Hearing the shouts raining down from behind, Lee Ja-Yang bit his lip and ran.

He couldn’t afford to be shocked by this now.

The entrance into the gorge was absurdly narrow.

Hae Yeon was busily clearing the way, but it would inevitably take time for the gathered people to fully enter.

Other disciples of Mount Hua and Southern Island Sect’s Elders were holding off those who had tried to attack in that gap.

“Move faster! Damn it, why are you drawing useless swords! Sheathe them and stick closer, you bastards!”

Lee Ja-Yang cursed as if he would spit blood.

His voice was filled with resentment, irritation, disappointment in himself, and helplessness.

“Yes!”

Southern Island Sect’s disciples squeezed themselves and pushed into the gorge.

“That’s enough!”

“Move! You people!”

At that moment, Im So-Byeong shouted thunderously.

No sooner had the order been given than Mount Hua’s disciples leapt like flying squirrels over the Southern Island Sect’s disciples’ heads and dashed forward.

“Elders, move to the middle! Be on guard, attacks may come from above!”

“Understood!”

The Elders led by Geum Yang-Baek answered loudly and moved into the gorge like a triangle formation.

Those camped outside the gorge tried in vain to slow them down, but having already lost over half their strength to Namgung Do-Wei and Hae Yeon, it was impossible.

‘Is it over now?’

If they had at least succeeded in entering, that was half the battle.

Lee Ja-Yang turned and clenched his fist tightly.

A hope he had buried very deep lifted its head.

But then.

‘Huh?’

He widened his eyes.

Because cliffs rose on both sides and his view was narrow, he could see it clearly.

The dense, dark forest they had passed through was quivering as if shaking violently.

“Th-there…….”

After the underbrush convulsed fiercely, countless assassins masked in red sprang out from within.

Those blood-clad who ran out of the dense forest surged straight toward the gorge.

A chill ran over Lee Ja-Yang’s entire body in an instant.

“Th-they’re coming! From the rear! From the rear!”

He cried out like a scream.

“Damn it, at the rear!”

The voice was desperate to the point of desperation.

Lee Ja-Yang was among Southern Island Sect’s disciples those who could pride themselves on being relatively knowledgeable in military strategy.

Because of that, he couldn’t help but understand.

How terrible it would be to be surrounded from both front and rear in this extremely narrow gorge.

Moreover, those surging from the rear looked unusually fierce at a glance.

They seemed to be the same sort who had ambushed them previously.

“Elders, to the rear! Block the rear! Damn it, Elders!”

Lee Ja-Yang yelled to alert them, but his voice was drowned out by the noise of the battlefield.

‘Ah, no!’

Lee Ja-Yang’s eyes shook wildly.

Mount Hua’s disciples and the Elders had already moved forward.

Then those blood-clad would fall upon the ordinary Southern Island disciples from behind.

Hadn’t they already seen what the result would be?

“Damn it!”

Lee Ja-Yang urgently pushed off the ground and launched himself.

If the Elders couldn’t move immediately, he had to go himself.

He couldn’t be sure he could stop them, but he was still better than the disciples.

As he leapt, he could see at a glance the blood-clad surging to the gorge’s entrance.

His heart pounded as if it would burst and his stomach churned.

Contrary to Lee Ja-Yang’s resolve, the blood-clad were faster at leaping into the gorge.

‘I-have to, block them…….’

It was at that moment.

Paaaaargh!

Paaaaargh!

A thunderous blast echoed from the gorge’s entrance, and black smoke instantly swallowed the opening.

‘What is that?’

Swoosh.

Almost simultaneously, someone reached out, snagged Lee Ja-yang’s foot in midair, and pulled him down.

“Oof!”

“Don’t go in front of me.”

“…Yes?”

“You’ll get poisoned.”

The one who dragged Lee Ja-Yang down shoved both hands into his wide sleeves.

“A pincer attack… obvious but a good move. But you missed one thing.”

The man at the rear of their force was Tang Pae.

“It’s a saying in the murim world: never chase after the Tang Family’s rear. Looks like your master didn’t even teach you that, did he?”

Tang Pae withdrew a poison vial and an antidote pill from his sleeve and curled his lips into a smile.

The dense poisonous smoke thinned, and the figures it had covered gradually came into view.

“Kuh, kuhreuk…….”

The blood-clad gripped their throats and convulsed violently.

The pain was extreme; some even dropped their weapons and had seizures.

This is why poison is terrifying.

In a one-on-one duel situation, you can be careful enough to neutralize a poison’s full effect.

And even if you’re poisoned, you can suppress it to some extent with your internal energy.

But on the battlefield, that’s impossible.

In the frantic moments of battle, it’s absurd to constantly guard against unseen poison that could flare up anywhere.

And naturally, there’s no time to treat poisoning.

“Ugh!”

“That bastard!”

Even as they watched their fellows ahead fall poisoned, those behind could do nothing.

With the poisonous smoke still visible, how could they possibly rush into it?

“Take the antidote pill!”

“Yes!”

The blood-clad all simultaneously put something in their mouths.

Tang Pae sneered as he watched.

“Antidote pill. Not a bad countermeasure.”

If the one before them weren’t the Tang Family’s heir.

‘People don’t understand the Tang Family well.’

Even Mount Hua likely doesn’t fully comprehend the Tang Family sect.

Tang Pae believed that Tang Gunak had taken the right approach.

He also thought Chung Myung’s criticism—that they had become so obsessed with poison that their personal martial might had been neglected—wasn’t wrong.

That’s why he too was devoting himself to training the Twelve Flying Blades, wasn’t he?

But at the same time, he didn’t think that criticism was the whole truth.

The Tang Family is one of the prestigious martial clans, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Namgung Family.

Would such a Tang Family be stupid enough to bet everything on a poison with clear limits?

Poison has a perfect advantage that brute force cannot match.

The very advantage that has sustained the Tang Family until now.

“He’s nothing but a weakling! I’ll cut him down in one stroke!”

Tang Pae snorted and laughed.

There’s truth in that statement.

He was weak.

His personal martial arts power didn’t reach Hae Yeon or Namgung Do-Wei’s toes.

Not to mention Mount Hua’s Sword Saint or Mount Hua’s Straight Sword techniques.

But that doesn’t mean Tang Pae was useless compared to them.

Because he was, after all, of the Tang Family.

“Strike!”

As the poisonous smoke subsided, the blood-clad leaped over their fallen comrade’s corpse and surged at Tang Pae.

Whether motivated by seeing a comrade die or by caution against poison, their momentum was ferocious.

But Tang Pae calmly and unhurriedly opened the cap of the poison vial in his hand.

“Is that so hard to understand?”

The moment the cap opened, a deadly poison aura flowed out of the vial so fearsome even he, who had handled poison all his life, shuddered.

“A Tang Family member’s strength isn’t assessed that way, you see.”

Ka-ang!

He floated the poison vial in the air and delivered a long strike toward it.

Fwoooooosh!

When the vial shattered, the poison inside mixed with Tang Pae’s tensile force and spread like an unfurled fan.

A Tang Family’s unique tensile force meant to claim range rather than raw power.

What that tensile force carried wasn’t intense internal qi or fearsome strength.

It was refined poison.

“Oof!”

Those who charged in involuntarily gasped.

You can parry attacks.

Internal qi can clash.

But how can one stop poison raining down mixed with qi?

“Ugh!”

The qi presence enveloped them like searing dust spewed by an exploding Mount Hua.

They pulled up all their internal qi to resist the force.

They didn’t even forget to close their eyes and hold their breath.

The qi carried by the weapons itself wasn’t strong.

If one didn’t inhale the poison, they could endure that with bare bodies.

But… unfortunately, that wasn’t a good counter.

Something like hot steam swept over their bodies.

Those who tried to open their closed eyes were baffled in an instant.

An indescribable, intense itching overwhelmed their whole bodies.

“Ugh……”

That was only the beginning.

After a mere breath’s moment, the itch turned into an unbearable torment.

The itch quickly became burning pain, and ultimately intense agony.

“Aaaaahhh……”

“Aaaaaaah!”

Horrible screams began to erupt.

An excruciating pain as if their bodies were being branded with a red-hot iron.

No, it was worse than that.

The poison sticking to their skin was actually melting the flesh.

“Gurgle……”

One by one, those spewing black blood from their seven gorges collapsed where they stood.

More than ten people perished with their skin blackened and melted.

It truly happened in an instant.

“Y-you bastard……”

Those who watched their comrades half-melted to death stared at Tang Pae with ashen faces.

Tang Pae calmly smeared poison onto the Twelve Flying Blades in his hand.

A dark greenish liquid stained the Flying Blade.

A chill ran down the spines of those who saw it.

“Of course I’m weak. But……”

Tang Pae slowly lowered the hand holding the bi-do.

“The poison I use has nothing to do with the user’s skill. That’s the terrifying thing about the Tang Family.”

His hand that didn’t hold a bi-do emerged from his sleeve.

The moment they saw the antidote pill in it, the blood-clad involuntarily took a step back.

“Perhaps I really am a Tang after all.”

“……”

“I find more joy in testing these poisons in real combat than hesitation about killing people. Come. I’ll make sure you taste the poison personally bestowed by the Lord of the house.”

A gleaming murderous intent flowed from the eyes of the Sichuan Tang Family’s heir, Tang Pae.