Poison Forest
Bi Sayeong, in the end, did not kill the old man.
No—he chose not to.
Even as the old man urged him over and over to strike him down, Bi Sayeong only snapped back in fury.
"If I kill you right now, what then?! You'll just create more people like me?! Or should I kill Dakam and those children along with you?!"
The old man couldn't answer, and Bi Sayeong spat out his words.
"Don't say things you can't take responsibility for. Pay it back—as much as you can—while you're still alive."
"Pay it back… while I live?"
Bi Sayeong turned toward me, then back to the old man.
"I may be a fool who doesn't know much, but my clever friend here seems to need your knowledge. If we're ever to storm the Blood Sect someday, we'll need information. So you'll cough it all up—everything you know! About the Blood Sect, about herbs, poisons, anything!"
The old man studied him with a deep gaze.
"…And will that truly be enough?"
"Damn it, of course it won't! Just do it anyway! Stop scratching at me! Tch… and here I am cursing in front of the kids."
He'd already cursed plenty, but none of us pointed it out.
Instead, we placed warm hands on his shoulder.
Across both my past and present lives, this was perhaps the finest I'd ever seen Bi Sayeong—except for the day he died behind me.
After a long silence, the old man, Seok Gyeongdal, said to Dakam,
"Go fetch what I made the other day."
What Dakam brought back was astonishing—a pill radiating an exquisite fragrance.
The old man said,
"It's not quite a Great Restoration Pill, but at least the equivalent of a Lesser Restoration Pill. Don't call it an apology—just think of it as something you happened to pick up on the road."
Startled, Bi Sayeong cried out.
"Wh-what the—?! You think giving me this will ease my heart?! I—I'm not that kind of man!"
But seeing him dazedly accept it anyway, it was clear his anger had softened.
We smiled and congratulated him.
"You always complained about never tasting a real elixir. Looks like your wish came true."
"Indeed. A pill equal to the Lesser Restoration Pill… congratulations."
"Now you'll grow stronger in leaps and bounds. I'll drive you harder than ever—be prepared."
But Bi Sayeong, staring at the pill, suddenly held it out to us.
"Let's… share this."
We all blinked in surprise. He hastily added excuses.
"D-don't get the wrong idea. They say if your inner energy exceeds fifty years, you risk energy deviation. I don't want that. Besides, Jin needs more inner power right away. And the Captain and Lady Cheong need to grow stronger too, so they can protect me better! That's all there is to it. So…"
He rambled on, but we knew his heart.
Today, it seemed, he'd decided to be admirable.
Captain Seolpung smiled warmly.
"Very well. Out of respect for your sincerity, I'll strive even harder to grow stronger. But I don't need elixirs right now. I'm stuck at the eighty-year limit of inner energy—without enlightenment, I can't accumulate more anyway."
Lady Cheongyeon added with a laugh,
"Same for me. I've hit the sixty-year wall. Elixirs won't help me until I break through, so I'll just accept the thought."
For ordinary martial artists, the limit of cultivation was sixty years of inner energy. No matter how many elixirs they consumed, the vessel would be full.
Only by breaking through to Enlightenment—the wall of Perfection—could they expand the vessel to seventy years, then eighty, then finally one hundred for those who transcended into Transcendence.
If there were no such limits, the wealthy who could buy up every elixir would all be supreme masters. This was nature's way of fairness.
Now, Captain Seolpung stood at the eighty-year wall, while Cheongyeon was halted at the sixty-year threshold.
Old Seok Gyeongdal, watching our exchange, shook his head in disbelief.
"In all my life, I've seen countless martial artists fight to the death for a single elixir. But to see people giving them up to one another—what in the world are you?"
We exchanged glances.
He was right.
The Lesser Restoration Pill was rarer than gold, unattainable without fate. And yet here we were, offering it around.
The warmth I felt from these companions was beyond measure.
The old man waved irritably.
"At this rate, my whole life will seem meaningless. Stop tormenting this old man and let someone just eat the thing already. And don't worry about energy deviation."
"…What? We don't have to worry about that?"
The first to grasp his meaning were Cheongyeon and I.
We gasped and stared at one another.
Hadn't we always wondered?
Why the Blood Sect, who cultivated by absorbing others' qi, never fell into deviation?
Swallowing hard, I asked,
"Is there… some secret method?"
The old man smiled faintly.
"You're about to learn one of the Blood Sect's greatest secrets."
He held out a pouch filled with black pills.
"These are Poison Pills."
"Poison Pills?"
"Yes. Each contains a trace of toxin."
He explained:
Blood Sect disciples, who built their inner strength by absorbing others' energy, had discovered long ago that if they ingested mild toxins regularly, they would never fall into energy deviation.
"To put it simply—deviation is caused when impure inner power clashes with pure. But if an external enemy is introduced, they stop clashing."
Our jaws dropped.
"But… how has this never been discovered?"
He chuckled.
"I told you—it's one of the Blood Sect's greatest secrets. And even if someone stole them, what would they see? Just poison pills. Who would think them anything special?"
No wonder.
The Blood Sect could never be eradicated, no matter how many times its members were slaughtered. The temptation was too great: the ability to rapidly accumulate inner power.
With just fifty or sixty years of qi, one could become top-class in no time, and many could break into Perfection.
Breaking through higher realms was harder, yes, but still—enough to fill the martial world with fearsome masters.
And now we had learned the truth.
Lady Cheongyeon suddenly suggested,
"Since we're on the subject—why don't you two take the elixir now? Seonu Gongja, you have a duel waiting when we return."
Captain Seolpung agreed.
"I think so too. No need to hesitate anymore."
I also felt that was the right call.
So Bi Sayeong and I consumed the elixir, then immediately sat in meditation.
Old Seok Gyeongdal, the Captain, and Cheongyeon watched us with pleased eyes.
Then Dakam turned to his siblings and asked,
"Where's Rakun hyung?"
"He went out at dawn to look for you since you hadn't come back."
"Really? He didn't go far, did he?"
At the same time, near the Poison Forest.
Boom!
"Grrraaaahh!"
With a deafening crash, a massive black leopard was hurled back, howling in pain.
It was the very beast that had fought Seolpung earlier.
The leopard twisted midair to land on its feet, feline grace intact. But it could not fend off the huge man who leapt down upon it.
Boom!
"Kyahhh!"
The man's palm strike smashed into the back of the leopard's skull. With a pitiful cry, the beast collapsed, unmoving.
And the beast never rose again.
The men who had been watching in tense silence now broke into cheers, faces bright with awe.
"Oooh! As expected of Demon General of Bloodthirst, Ji Gwangok! To fell such a monstrous beast in a single strike!"
"Of course! For a Demon General who stood at the side of the Blood Demon himself in the last Holy War, a mere beast like this is nothing!"
Ji Gwangok, the Demon General of Bloodthirst, ignored their flattery, giving curt orders instead.
"I did not kill it. Take it with us. A black leopard infused with venom… a curious specimen indeed. The Blood Demon may find it of interest."
"Yes, my lord!"
Several subordinates quickly bound the leopard, while a sycophantic underling slithered up to Ji Gwangok, his voice dripping with flattery.
"I cannot fathom why a mighty Demon General like yourself must sully his hands with gathering mere poisonous creatures. To use an ox cleaver on a chicken is one thing, but for the Blood Demon to order this seems… excessive."
Ji Gwangok's bestial eyes turned on him, glinting with savage malice.
"You dare… question the judgment of the Blood Demon?"
At that gaze, the sycophant turned ashen.
"N-no, my lord! Never! I only thought—only that it might trouble you to—"
Crack!
He never finished.
With a casual sweep of his thick hand, Ji Gwangok crushed the man's skull like a melon.
Staring coldly at the lifeless corpse, he said without emotion,
"A disciple who does not obey the Blood Demon has no place in the Sect."
The others swallowed hard, pale and trembling as they hurried to finish securing the leopard.
This was Ji Gwangok—the very man famed since the Great Blood War as the Blood Demon Sa Hyehyeolma Jeon Mugwang's hunting hound. His martial might, his savagery—every rumor had been true.
They had come to the Poison Forest under orders to harvest deadly venomous creatures. Their party had originally been one early Perfection expert and seven top-tier first-class martial artists. But Ji Gwangok himself had been sent to oversee them.
He was notorious among the Blood Sect as harsh, brutal, and utterly unyielding. With him here, none of the subordinates could relax.
And already, three of their number were dead.
Two had fallen to the black leopard, and Ji Gwangok had only watched with detached amusement, making no move to aid them. That was as good as killing them himself.
And the third— the only Perfection expert among them—he had just slain with his own hands.
It was clear to all how little he valued their lives.
All they wanted now was to complete their task swiftly and escape his shadow.
Just then, a scout returned, dragging someone in tow— a dark-skinned Miao boy.
"My lord Demon General! I caught a Miao brat nearby! Judging by his age, there must be a hidden settlement around here! And he was carrying a sachet of repellent incense, the kind that drives away the shades!"
Ji Gwangok's predator eyes turned toward the child.
Paralyzed by point-sealing, the boy wept and shouted desperately.
"No! I live alone! There is no hideout! You monsters!"
Ji Gwangok muttered in amusement.
"A hideout near the Poison Forest… considering how shades fear incense, it makes sense. And this child even carries a sachet…"
He seized the boy by the throat and lifted him up to eye level.
The child trembled in absolute terror.
Ji Gwangok's eyes gleamed with eerie green light as he intoned in a chilling voice,
"Listen to me."
The boy's gaze grew hazy.
Though Ji Gwangok had never mastered the full Blood Puppet Arts that could turn men into true puppets, ensnaring the mind of an untrained child was trivial for him.
Meanwhile, Seolpung and Hae Cheongyeon sat drinking tea brewed by Dakam, waiting for Seonu Jin and Bi Sayeong to finish their meditation.
Time passed quickly in conversation with old Seok Gyeongdal, who spoke with vast erudition, once a scholar of martial theory and medicine.
Seolpung's eyes widened in shock.
"So the elixir they just consumed… it was made from poisonous creatures?"
"It was," the old man replied.
"But… I felt no trace of poison within it."
"Think carefully. What is poison, but energy unbalanced, thrown askew? And what is an elixir but energy in perfect harmony? If poison can be combined and brought into balance, what do you have then?"
"…An elixir, you mean?"
"Just so. An elixir is nothing more than a concentration of harmonized energies. Balance poison, and it becomes medicine. This is not my theory alone. They say the eccentric sage Nangbin once used poisons to restore a crippled man to full strength."
The old man was clearly delighted to speak at such depth again.
But the topic soon turned darker—toward demons.
"So," Seolpung asked gravely, "these shades we now see—they are all experiments? Steps toward creating something greater?"
The old man's face grew heavy.
"Yes. That was the greatest reason I left Mugwang's side. For what he wished to create was…"
He broke off.
One of Dakam's siblings, watching the window, cried out in alarm.
"Grandfather! It's Rakun! He's coming back—bringing strangers!"
"What?!"
With Seolpung's help, the old man peered out the window—and his face drained of color.
"That man…! Everyone, run! Flee through the back door at once!"
"What is it, elder? Who is he?"
"It is the Demon General of Bloodthirst—Ji Gwangok! He has possessed Rakun and tracked us here! Run, now!"
The name froze both Seolpung and Cheongyeon.
They knew it all too well.
Ji Gwangok—one of the Blood Sect's most feared demons, a butcher of countless righteous lives in the Great Blood War, a monster whose inner strength surpassed one hundred years.
Dakam cried out,
"B-but Grandfather! What about Rakun?!"
"Too late. He's already been possessed! To try to save him now is to die!"
The old man was right. If the enemy truly was Ji Gwangok, escape was their only hope.
But Seolpung's eyes went to Seonu Jin and Bi Sayeong, still deep in meditation.
They could not move.
And thus he could not abandon them.
He said firmly to the old man,
"Take the children and flee. I will hold him off."
"Such madness!"
But Hae Cheongyeon cut in, her voice calm, her eyes resolute.
"You misspoke, Captain. You meant to say we will hold him off."
Not a trace of hesitation was in her face.