Episode 227

“Ah, my pride is hurt! By a dirty snake! Ahh the dirt!”

Spit! Spit!

Chung Myung rushed to spit out the dirt in his mouth. Every time he spat out dirt, blood gushed from his nose.

“…wipe your nose.”

“Is a nosebleed so important… what? What? Why is it flowing like this? Oh my! That snake bastard is killing humans!”

Yu Yiseol who watched it shook her head and pulled out a handkerchief from her sleeve. With it, she approached Chung Myung.

‘Ah, she is thinking of gently cleaning….’

Shh! Shhh!

“Ah! Ahhh!”

Yu Yiseol shoved the handkerchief into Chung Myung’s nose. Chung Myung tried to move but she grabbed onto his neck and pushed the cloth into his nose.

“…”

‘Was this caring or harassing?’

…just looking at Chung Myung’s face would make it clear that he didn’t like it.

Chung Myung who now had a handkerchief up the nose, grunted.

“Ugh! There is no peaceful place anywhere.”

The Beast Palace Lord who was quietly looking at the disciples, opened his mouth.

“The Ink-scaled Blood Python is the most dangerous of the spirit creatures in Yunnan. At least it has a gentle personality. But it causes harm when someone enters its territory, so it is vicious and disastrous.”

“Gentle?”

“Right. It is docile.”

“Ugh.”

“However, it shows an obsession with its territory. It doesn’t tolerate someone else touching even a single stone or grass. So it is almost impossible to deceive its senses and pull out the herb you need.”

“Let’s talk about what happened earlier…”

“In the end, it means that you have to defeat it to get the grass.”

“Right.”

The Beast Palace Lord nodded.

“It is regrettable that I have to say this to the descendants of the Plum Blossom Sword Saint who came from the Central Plains, but the Beast Palace has no solution to this problem. You need to solve it yourselves.”

After that, Baek Cheon approached Chung Myung with a serious expression.

“Chung Myung, I think giving up would be better.”

“Giving up? You want to give up?”

“There is no other way here. Our swords cannot hurt it, so how can we deal with it? You got lucky before. If you had been unlucky, you would have turned into its food.”

“Kuak.”

Chung Myung made a sick sound indicating that he didn’t like what he had heard.

Actually, he should’ve died.

If it had been someone other than Chung Myung, they would’ve cleanly left this world and walked into the netherworld.

‘How do such things even exist?’

Aside from its gigantic size, what was more terrifying was the absurd hardness of its scales. Even though Chung Myung had raised his qi to the maximum, he couldn’t scratch a single scale.

The current Chung Myung was powerful enough to cut down literal mountains. That would mean that the scales of the snake were stronger than mountains.

Chung Myung scratched his head. In the first place, swordsmanship as a skill had been created to deal with people. It had been polished and trained for centuries with the thought of cutting down a human body.

In other words, regardless of the swordsmanship he could perform, it would all be meaningless.

“In the end, is it strength that I lack?”

“Right. You aren’t any less powerful, but this isn’t the time. Maybe after heading back, we can think of another way.”

“Okay. Let’s head back now!”

“Oh?”

Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung with startled eyes.

‘No… why is he being so obedient?’

“Let’s head back to the Beast Palace!”

“…”

‘Ah, I should have heard the full thing.’

“If what I lack is strength, I will increase it! I will break that damn snake’s head with swordsmanship!”

Chung Myung gritted his teeth.

If he was still the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, he could have beaten the snake with mere chopsticks if he wanted. But he wasn’t the Sword Saint anymore… and he hated having to deal with this in such a troublesome manner.

‘Ugh, sahyung! My sahyung!’

‘I live in such a place!’

Chung Myung, who looked at the lake, mumbled.

“I will come back and see you in a while.”

And then he turned around and ran to the Beast Palace.

“Come with me!”

“No, what more will you do?”

The disciples of Mount Hua began to run after Chung Myung.

The Palace Lord laughed at the children.

“Such fun people.”

“No one come in!”

“Yah, you idiot…”

Kwang!

Chung Myung slammed the door shut and went inside. Beak Cheon looked at him and sighed.

“…what is he up to?”

Yoon Jong glanced at Baek Cheon and said.

“Still, it is Chung Myung, right? He’s a guy who has always managed to find an answer when there was a problem.”

“…but when has he ever just simply found the answer?”

“Uh?”

“I am worried he will do weird things. It is quite natural for me to think that at this point. I am worried about the place where he is going to do weird things now… I am worried about the Nanman Beast Palace.”

“…Uh, that…”

This was true.

Yoon Jong glanced around. When he felt the gazes of the soldiers around him, he smiled awkwardly and said,

“He couldn’t have not thought about it right?”

“It will be fine…”

Baek Cheon sighed deeply knowing that his premonitions would be wrong.

Chung Myung, who went in, took out two wooden boxes. One was large and the other, small.

He took out another small box. Then he crossed his arms and legs and sat there.

He took a deep breath.

‘It is something that has to be done at least once.’

He knew that this day would come. He was now strong enough to resemble a shadow of his past self, but he hadn’t nearly reached the level of a Sword Saint yet.

Of course, the current Chung Myung was still cultivating at a slow pace. But as the days went by, his responsibilities increased and the more he did something, the more enemies he would make.

There was no time for him to take it easy like he had in the past. Even if he started practicing whole-heartedly now, it would take him 30 years to catch up with his past self…

‘But is there any guarantee that nothing will happen in those 30 years?’

The Southern Edge Sect or the Wudang Sect could come and attack Mount Hua. Maybe even the Demonic Sect might get revived again.

And if he was unlucky, he might get eaten by a spirit creature!

No matter what the circumstances, he had to overcome it. To do that he needed to get stronger. Only then could Mount Hua become stronger.

‘In the end, it depends on my strength.’

He had almost finished modifying his body with the martial arts he had been practicing. Now, with his past experiences, he would naturally be able to unfold the martial arts that he had used in the past. But before he could do that, he needed one last thing.

“Then…”

Chung Myung sighed and looked at the wooden boxes in front of him.

Click.

The first box he opened was the large one.

Inside it was the Soul Vitality Pill he had forcefully stolen from Hyun Jong. Chung Myung looked at it with bright shining eyes.

Then he opened the second one.

It was smaller than the first one, but it looked more luxurious.

Click.

As soon as the second wooden box was opened, a stinky smell began to waft through the room.

The pill was a black round object with an ominous feel to it.

This was part of the legacy of the Tang family, the Heavenly Poison Pill.

The Heavenly Poison Pill was said to be one of the best products of alchemy in the world. Originally, it wasn’t something that outsiders could receive, but Tang Gunak had given it to Chung Myung.

Unlike the ominous black light that seemed to evidence its harmful effects, the pill actually improved one’s internal qi. Those who took it wouldn’t get poisoned anymore, and the damage would be reduced by a lot as well.

‘If it is something that develops resistance to poison, then…’

“Phew.’

Chung Myung took a deep breath.

And he looked at the smallest box.

Unlike the other two pills, the third one was different. There was no way that Chung Myung, who had reached such a strong level in the past, couldn’t handle the other pills.

The problem was the third one.

“Kuak.”

Even Tang Gunak had hesitated in giving it to him. Chung mung opened the box with carefully. Unlike the previous boxes that had pills immediately inside the container, this one had a small, white jade bottle. He took a deep breath and opened the lid of this bottle.

Swish…

As soon as he opened it, the scent which came from it tickled his nose. It was slightly sweet and refreshing. And it felt purer than most medicines in terms of fragrance alone.

But a person shouldn’t be fooled by scent when handing this pill.

What was in this was nothing else but poison.

That too, an extreme poison that was called the ‘Tears of Beauty’.

“Phew.”

Chung Myung looked at the bottle and then smelled it.

“Kuak.”

As soon as he smelled it, he immediately asked himself if he had to go this far.

“Can I trust him?”

Old memories came to his mind.

“Taoist hyung.”

“What?’

“Do you know what the best pill in the Central Plains is?”

Chung Myung frowned at the question. However, Tang Bo was someone who normally used to ask him similar things regularly.

“The Soul Vitality Pill? The Heavenly Sun Pill?”

“Wrong… they aren’t even pills.”

“…what are you talking about?”

Seeing the expression on Chung Myung’s face, Tang Bo giggled and smiled.

“The best pill in the world is actually in our family!”

“I know about the Heavenly Poison Pill, but it is inferior compared to the pills of other sects. It sure is a pill that uses poison as a medicine, but that is all.”

“Ugh.”

Tang Bo seemed to have nothing to say.

“Anyway, it isn’t that. The best pill is called the ‘Tears of Beauty’.”

“Tears of Beauty? I haven’t heard of it?”

“That is expected. Because it is a poison… a poison that is difficult even for our family to deal with.”

“…such strong poison in an elixir? It seems you’ve got hit too much these days that your words seemed to be getting messed up?”

“When did I get hit? All the hits I got were from you!”

Chung Myung got up, making Tang Bo retreat.

“Well, that doesn’t mean I will stop!”

Chung Myung smiled and sat down.

“Go on.”

“This Tears of Beauty is nothing other than a combination of many poisons in the world!”

“It still seems like the worst poison to me?”

“…no, it isn’t that bad.”

“Uh?”

Tang Bo smiled.

“Actually, the poison was made because we thought it would give us an amazing poison which couldn’t be cured, but it didn’t show the effect that we were expecting. The different poisons ended up neutralizing each other and didn’t have any extreme effects.”

The Plum Blossom Sword Saint, Chung Myung, looked at Tang Bo.

“And the conclusion?”

“Taoist hyung… What is energy?”

“…qi.”

“Right. It is qi. But animals and plants only have qi in an appropriate size. But aren’t warriors able to endlessly replenish qi in their bodies?”

“Right.”

“But among animals, there are creatures that can hold qi. They are called spirit creatures. Such animals have their own inner place in their body and they go beyond the limits of other animals.”

“Don’t say obvious things and tell me what the result was.”

“Ah. I’m almost there! But spirit creatures aren’t the only things apart from warrior that can hold qi. Poison can hold qi too.”

“Uh?”

Tang Bo smiled.

“When a non-poisonous beast possesses qi, it turns to a spirit creature. But when a poisonous animal has qi, it turns to poison qi…”

“Poison Qi?”

“Yes. Otherwise, the poison cannot stop and will continue to turn into more poison. In other words, the poison of a poison creature is nothing more than the qi it has accumulated throughout its life!”

Chung Myung titled his head.

‘Sounds like dogshit.’

“So, in our family, we have tried to absorb the poison of such poison creatures. We tried to direct a bunch of poisons to one single place and use it as qi for ourselves.”

“And what happened?”

“Everyone died.”

“…”

‘What was that, you idiot?’

When Chung Myung clenched his fist, Tang Bo waved his hand and stepped back.

“Ah, no! Listen till the end! Till the end!”

“Listen to this bullshit?”

“Because this is no bullshit! It failed but it worked!’

“How can you know that? People died!”

Tang Bo chuckled.

“The members of the Tang family rushed to subdue a survivor who had gone crazy with the mixed poison, but they were all beat up and thrown away. Because of that man’s sudden strength and tenacity, the sect almost collapsed. This happened two hundred years ago, by the way.”

“…”

“Of course, we later found that because he hadn’t resisted the poison and accepted it into his body, it had provided very clean qi to the person. It had another effect too. It could be used to get a huge amount of qi that cannot be compared to any other pill. The Tears of Beauty might not be the ultimate poison in the world, but it can be the best pill in the world! It can purify anything!”

Chung Myung took a deep breath.

“So, how exactly does the poison purify the body?”

“…I don’t know.”

“…”

“If I knew, would I be like this? I would have already drunk a bowl of it and even broken your back… Ah, no! That was a mistake.”

“Break?”

“…”

“Back?”

Chung Myung smiled as he got up from his seat.

“Hahahah.”

Tang Bo slowly backed away.

“Oh. Let’s get it over with today!”

Chung Myung flew towards Tang Bo without delay.

“Eukkkkk! Taoist hyung! Hyung! I didn’t mean it! Ah, you bastard! Is it alright for Taoist to beat people up like this… Ah! Spare me! Hyung!”

“Die! Die! Die you idiot!”

“….”

Chung Myung, who recalled the memories of the past, sighed as he looked at the bottle in his hand.

“…it seems like I am bound by my past.”

‘Now… should I eat this or not?’