Poison Forest (2)

The youth’s story, as best as we understood it, went like this.

When many Miao were being taken by the Blood Demon Cult, an elder called Tokno helped them survive and has kept them safe deep in the jungle to this day; but Tokno is now gravely ill, vomiting blood.

From his explanation, I inferred that this Tokno was likely a martial artist and seemed to be showing symptoms of Qi Deviation.

So the Miao youth had deliberately come to the frontline to seek help from those trained in the martial arts.

“Please help us. Tokno is our benefactor. Without him, all our people will die.”

At this unprecedented situation, Seol Pung hesitated, unsure what to do.

Ju Taegyeong, who had caught up from behind and joined us, snorted and said,

“What’s there to think about? Obviously a lie. How could untrained Miao survive in that forest swarming with demons?”

Whether or not we liked him, his words weren’t entirely unreasonable.

But the Miao youth protested at once.

“It is not a lie! The scent Tokno gave us drives monsters away! Thanks to Tokno, we stayed safe!”

At that, Seonu Jin, who had been thinking hard, reacted.

“A scent? What kind of scent do you mean?”

The youth produced a roughly made scent sachet.

“Monsters hate this smell! With the scent Tokno gave, monsters do not come!”

It had a peculiar odor, but that alone couldn’t prove his claim.

Seonu Jin’s eyes lit as he spoke to Seol Pung.

“Let’s go, Captain.”

“Hm?”

“Even this one sachet is enough to warrant a look. And…”

Ju Taegyeong cut in with a fierce look.

“What nonsense?! You’d head in there over a sachet we can’t even verify? And even if it’s real, of what use is it to us?! We’re supposed to hunt demons, not wear a fragrance that makes them avoid us!”

Seonu Jin only scoffed and kept speaking to Seol Pung.

“Captain, they said they’ve been living deeper inside the forest. That means they know the interior terrain. If we won’t be guarding here forever, we also need to learn the lay of the land within, don’t we?”

The moment his meaning landed, everyone fell silent.

He was speaking not of defense but offense. To strike the Blood Demon Cult someday, we would need intel from the inside.

No one in the Thirteenth Unit had thought that far. It was a radical idea.

His words shattered our fixed assumptions; we could only swallow hard.

Even Ju Taegyeong, about to spit anger at being ignored, stammered.

“W-what madness is this?! The Blood Demon Cult and the Martial Alliance have a non-aggression pact! You can’t just—!”

Seonu Jin smiled thinly and answered him.

“Ah yes, thanks to that pact we get attacked daily by demons. And aren’t you a disciple of the Diancang Sect? I didn’t expect a Diancang disciple to say such things.”

At the name of his sect, Ju Taegyeong gripped his sword-hilt, feeling his school insulted.

“You dare!”

But the next thing Seonu Jin said froze his hand.

“With the Blood Demon Cult struck and beaten back, reclaiming Diancang’s ancestral mountain—wasn’t that your lifelong wish? Or are you content to stand guard here for millennia? How surprising.”

Ju Taegyeong had no answer.

Having subdued him with a few sentences, Seonu Jin turned back to Seol Pung.

“Well, Captain?”

His eyes said he would go alone if refused.

After a moment’s thought, Seol Pung asked the Miao youth again,

“How long to get there?”

The youth, watching our tense exchange, replied at once.

“Half a day! If we run fast, half a day will do!”

Seol Pung frowned at that.

“Half a day… a full day round trip is tight. We must be back before the afternoon patrol the day after tomorrow. If we arrive and attempt treatment, we may not have time—and there’s no guarantee it will work.”

After a brief silence, Ju Taegyeong interjected again.

“It’s also abandoning our post. Unauthorized absence is a serious offense. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

Seonu Jin chuckled and told him,

“Don’t worry—I wasn’t inviting you.”

“What?!”

“Captain, we don’t all need to go. We pick the fastest and sprint. Say, you, me, and Sayoung—three of us. You and I can take turns carrying this youth.”

Even Bi Sayoung, who had taught him the Bijong Body-Lightening Art, acknowledged Seonu Jin’s recent movement skill.

He could even keep speed while wearing weighted vests—better than Bi Sayoung at times.

When Seol Pung nodded that it was a good idea, Seonu Jin continued,

“As for abandoning our post…”

He turned back to the Miao youth.

“There are many demons—monsters—where you live, right?”

“Yes! Many! But with this scent—!”

“No, I mean which kinds? Do you have those that grow stronger by sucking human vital essence? The kind that moves silently like a spider and drains people?”

“Yes! There is! Very dangerous!”

A demon that stalked silently, drained essence, and kept growing—the frontline called it the Spider Ghost.

Hearing that much, Seonu Jin grinned at Seol Pung.

“So there’s a Spider Ghost. We’ve found its trail; shouldn’t we pursue and eliminate it?”

Seol Pung grinned back.

“Genius. Then this is a mission we must take.”

A growing Spider Ghost had to be destroyed on sight.

That principle superseded any other duty.

In the end, Seol Pung, Seonu Jin, Bi Sayoung—and Cheong-yeon—set out.

Cheong-yeon volunteered, saying she was as fast as either of them.

And in skill, she was second only to Seol Pung in the Seventh Unit; no one objected.

Before departure, Seol Pung gave Na Seoyu an awkward smile.

“Watch our rear, Vice-captain. Sorry to keep making you manage the squad for me.”

She answered with a warm smile.

“Travel safely. We’ll be waiting.”

Out of awkwardness, he turned his head instead of meeting her eyes.

Nearby, Ju Taegyeong glared at Seonu Jin.

“Even if you come back exhausted, the duel won’t be postponed. You’re not running to dodge me, are you?”

Seonu Jin gave a small laugh.

“Your delusions are grand. Compared to this matter, our duel holds little meaning for me. Don’t flatter yourself.”

“What?!”

Mocking the grinding of Ju Taegyeong’s teeth, Seonu Jin leapt forward—with the Miao youth on his back.

“Woooah! So fast!”

The youth on my back couldn’t stop shouting.

Captain Seol Pung, I, Bi Sayoung, and Lady Cheong-yeon raced along the treetops like during dawn training.

Evening deepened; the jungle grew denser. Our speed did not flag.

“Amazing! Like flying!”

The Miao youth, who introduced himself as Dakam, seemed naturally bright and polite.

Though we’d asked permission, he’d had his meridians sealed and was being hauled like baggage—hardly pleasant—yet he was as giddy as a child.

Watching him, I thought of my past life.

I had met him then, too.

He had begged us with the same earnest face.

“And we refused him.”

Nothing catastrophic came of it; it was just a passing incident.

But long after, the Venomous Serpent Ghost appeared.

A demon like the crystallization of poison, that poisoned you merely by drawing near.

Knowing nothing about it, over twenty of our members were poisoned by the first one we met.

And among them was her.

“Lady Na.”

‘Our vice-captain, my first love—Na Seoyu….’

It happened while Captain Seol Pung had split from us to rescue Ju Taegyeong and his lackeys from danger.

Neither the resident physician nor Lady Tang Yeo-eun of the Tang Clan could neutralize that venom.

So, as we watched comrades die, Captain Seol Pung plunged into the jungle alone.

Lady Tang’s reasoning had been: if the Serpent Ghost’s toxin derived from jungle poisons, the antidote would likely be nearby too.

Two days later, he returned with plants he said the Miao had advised him to pick as antidote herbs; Lady Tang compounded an antidote and tested it.

We barely saved a few who still lived.

But Lady Na was not among them.

It was already too late.

Her death changed us.

‘It was after that that Captain Seol Pung changed—and so did I.’

He cast off his gentle kindness and became cold, ruthless.

I threw myself into training as if to grind my body away.

Thus he became the Gale-Wind Flying Dragon, and I reached top first-class.

I didn’t know if the Miao who advised him then was this youth.

But even the tiniest chance was worth trying—so I thought.

After about an hour of running, the sun set; the jungle turned pitch black, and we had to slow.

Captain Seol Pung could see as if in daylight, but for me, Bi Sayoung, and Lady Cheong-yeon, it was too much.

“At least the stars are bright.”

We dropped to the ground and set Dakam down; to guide us, he now had to lead.

I spoke to Bi Sayoung.

“Sayoung.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“We should train to sense with eyes closed, like Captain.”

“Tch, as if that’ll work. I’m dead tired already, and our training list keeps growing.”

He grumbled, but didn’t refuse. He felt the need too.

Lady Cheong-yeon said nothing, but I had sensed for a while that she already practiced it. I had trained it in my past life as well.

Back then I’d gained little—but since the Spider Ghost incident, I’d made real progress.

Dakam warned us then.

“Stay close to me. Many poison beasts around here, so be ca—”

Before he finished, something shot from the woods like an arrow.

Shiiik!

In the darkness, it streaked like a bolt—truly dangerous.

Neither I nor Bi Sayoung could properly react.

“Urgh!”

“What was that?!”

But Captain Seol Pung could.

Thup!

As if waiting for it, he snatched it lightly—then muttered, seeing the thin snake hissing in his hand,

“This is… a Three-Hue Arrow Serpent?”

Lady Cheong-yeon perked up first.

“Hm? A Three-Hue Arrow Serpent?”

“And isn’t that supposed to be a very rare venom-beast?”

Seol Pung plucked another out of the air and answered,

Tok!

“Apparently not here.”

Frontline personnel received basic education on venom-beasts from Tang Clan booklets.

There it said that the Three-Hue Arrow Serpent—bearing three colors and flying like an arrow to bite its target—was a prized venomous snake used as a living dart by poison-using fighters.

Dakam approached in awe.

“As expected! Only Tokno could do that besides you.”

Seol Pung asked him,

“Are these common here?”

“That snake? Yes, very many. Not yet, but a bit further is the Poison Forest—there are many other kinds too.”

Nodding along, Lady Cheong-yeon took the snake from the captain and examined it closely.

Had her eyes been visible, they would have sparkled.

According to Dakam, about an hour ahead lay a huge marsh called the Poison Forest—a forbidden place the Miao never entered.

But his home was beyond it.

When their people began to be hunted by the cultists, they had no choice but to settle near there.

I asked him,

“Do demons avoid that place because of the many poison-creatures?”

“Yes. Tokno said so. Monsters were made to hate poison scents. But later, he said, some will appear that breathe poison—so be careful.”

At that, the captain and I exchanged looks.

This Tokno seemed to know demons very well.

In fact, if by “later ones” he meant the Venomous Serpent Ghost, then he knew not just well—too well.

His identity grew all the more intriguing.

Perhaps…