Free Web NovelI must’ve dozed off for a moment while lying on Tang Jung’s lap, because when °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° I opened my eyes, I was in my bedroom.
I felt around by my pillow for a water bowl, and Songji hurried over and pressed a cup into my hand.
“You’re awake? The water’s right here.”
“Good morning, Songji. How did I get back yesterday? I don’t remember.”
“You were carried back in the Poison King’s arms. Young lady, how could you fall asleep outside? He came in person, and I nearly had a heart attack.”
Songji answered.
So that’s what happened. Tang Jung carried me...
“Pfft! W-what did you just say?”
I spat out the water I was drinking and grabbed at my own head.
So I fell asleep right there while getting a massage? And Tang Jung brought me back while I was knocked out? I’m losing my mind.
Tang Jung has been softer lately, but if I get too shameless about it...
...Is it fine?
Now that I think about it, he’s been accepting every little tantrum I throw. Even when I bawled and made a scene, he laughed and soothed me.
Yeah. If he’s going to coddle me, I’ll just live like this. It’s not like he’s going to kill the granddaughter he personally brews spirit medicine for and raises by hand.
As I rubbed at my mouth in resignation, Songji handed me a towel.
“Wipe up and get up quickly. You have dawn training.”
“Uh. Yeah.”
So now you think it’s normal for me to train the second I open my eyes.
When I climbed out from under the blanket, Gyeonga brought my martial uniform. She whispered like my hollow-eyed face was too pitiful to look at.
“Y-young lady... I-I’ll... p-pack... s-snacks... f-for you... k-keep... g-going...!”
“Thanks, Gyeonga.”
Right. How is anyone supposed to live doing nothing but train? You need at least one reason to keep breathing—like food.
Sniffling, I changed into my martial uniform.
*****
Learning a Heart Method was only the beginning.
Footwork. Body movement.
“You have to use your feet more softly. If your movements are that big, you’ll be sluggish. Watch. Like this.”
“Uh, like this? Ngh—! My leg—my leg tangled! Deokju, grab me!”
Lightness skill.
“Now, cross the pond like your grandfather. Wrap your internal energy around your toes... and step across the surface like this—tap, tap. Easy, right?”
“Huh? I’m not a water strider. How am I supposed to cross a pond on top of it?”
“I said it’s easy. Try it once.”
“This feels like it’s not going to—aaah!”
SPLASH!
Hidden-weapon technique.
“Once a hidden weapon is released, it can’t be taken back. Don’t throw lightly. Be cautious and precise... brat, don’t nod off.”
THWACK!
“Ow! That hurts!”
Even poison application.
“When you apply poison, you must keep the wind at your back. If the poison blows back in a headwind, it’s useless—and worse, your allies can get hit.”
“Wind at my back... this way, right?”
“Cough! Cough!”
“...That’s the other way. Deokju. Go take an antidote pill.”
“Yes, sir—cough!”
There was so much to learn, it felt like I wouldn’t have enough of myself left even if I had ten bodies.
Massaging my trembling legs, I flopped flat on the ground.
Oh my god, I’m dying!
Tang Jung came up at some point and clicked his tongue as he looked down at me.
“What are you doing lying there?”
“Grandfather, this is a yoga pose they call Savasana in Cheonchuk. It’s good for sensing the flow of internal energy.”
“Stop talking nonsense and get up.”
Tch. Doesn’t work on him.
When I rolled around, Tang Jung snorted and hooked me up like he was yanking a radish out of a field.
“You look like a puppy rolling in mud. We should wash you.”
Not exactly something the man who ground me into paste had the right to say.
I swallowed a hollow laugh, and the instant my feet hit the ground, Tang Geunmyeong appeared from nowhere and bowed at the waist.
“Sir. A guest has arrived.”
“Didn’t I say I won’t receive guests for the time being? Send him away.”
Tang Jung waved his hand like it wasn’t even worth hearing. Tang Geunmyeong’s face tightened, awkward.
“It’s... the Martial Alliance Lord came in person.”
“Wi Jigok? Why is that brat here?”
“He said he has something urgent to tell you.”
Tang Jung’s brows crumpled into a wreck. With an irritated face, he pressed at the bridge of his nose again and again.
“An annoying one’s shown up. I’ll go soon—have him in the guest quarters... No. Bring him to my residence. Make sure no one crosses paths with him.”
“Understood, sir.”
Tang Geunmyeong answered respectfully and vanished. I rolled my eyes around.
Why would the Martial Alliance Lord come looking for Tang Jung?
Tang Jung sighed and patted my head.
“We’ll end training here for today. Go prepare to receive a guest.”
“Do I greet him too?”
“Yes. He’s the Alliance Lord, after all. It won’t hurt to be acquainted. Wash and return within fifteen minutes.”
“What? It takes fifteen minutes just to get from the training grounds to your residence!”
“You learned lightness skill, didn’t you? What are you doing? Move.”
...Do you think I’m you?
I ran out of the training grounds with a miserable face.
*****
The Martial Alliance Lord, Wi Jigok.
The head of the Martial Alliance, representing the orthodox martial world, was an old man with snow-white hair.
“Have you been well, sir?”
I was shocked once because the old man hobbling along with a cane was the Martial Alliance Lord—and shocked twice because he was far younger than Tang Jung.
Because no matter how I looked at it, the Martial Alliance Lord was the one who looked like the “sir.”
“And what brings the Alliance Lord here? It can’t have been easy, coming all the way from Wuhan to Sichuan.”
Even at the question that basically meant Why are you here bothering me, Wi Jigok didn’t lose his smile.
“Do I need a reason to pay respects to a great senior of the martial world? It’s simply the duty of a junior.”
“You’ve gotten old enough to let a serpent settle in your belly.”
“Haha. Please say I’ve grown up.”
Wi Jigok answered, legs trembling, then leaned into his cane. He looked like he was waiting for someone to tell him to sit.
But Tang Jung only stared at him with a blank face, offering nothing.
I couldn’t stand it and tugged at Tang Jung’s sleeve.
“Grandfather? We have a guest—should I bring tea?”
“...Fine. Alliance Lord, sit.”
Tang Jung answered gruffly and jerked his chin. At the permission, Wi Jigok laughed and took a chair.
“So this must be the disciple you’ve newly taken in.”
“How would you know that.”
“Wasn’t it you who deliberately spread the rumor? There isn’t a soul in Sichuan who doesn’t know. So I, Wi Jigok, simply assumed that was the case.”
Wi Jigok replied shamelessly, smoothing his white beard.
...This old man talks weird. It scratches at the inside of my skull.
Tang Jung seemed to feel the same, frowning.
“I didn’t realize the Alliance Lord took such interest in Sichuan’s gossip.”
“I only wish that you are always without trouble—”
“Enough. Is there anyone who doesn’t know you hate me? If you dragged yourself here anyway, you clearly want something, so stop circling and get to the point.”
Tang Jung cut him off, dropping even the polite forms.
While I was heating the tea water, I glanced between them. Tang Jung’s expression wasn’t normal.
“Tea! Drink some tea while you talk.”
I served the tea before the air got any sharper, and the crease between Tang Jung’s brows eased a little. He let out a long sigh like he was forcing himself to endure—because I was watching.
Then Wi Jigok—who’d been wheezing like a sick old man—changed complexion.
Like his hands had never trembled at all, he straightened his back and offered a fist salute with wrinkled hands.
“Of course, it’s Alliance business. There is a place I would like the Poison King to accompany us to.”
“I refuse.”
As if he expected that, Wi Jigok stared at Tang Jung, then pulled out a worn wooden token from his robe and placed it on the table.
Jade Ring.
The moment Tang Jung saw the carved letters on the token, his pupils shook violently.
“You... you—!”
Tang Jung pointed at him and ground his teeth. His face was so chilling it looked like he could tear the old man apart on the spot.
The surging pressure in the air made my stomach roll, but Wi Jigok calmly sipped his tea.
“Where did you get the Jade Ring Token?”
“Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist gave it to me.”
“That old bastard Im Seol-yak...!”
Tang Jung swallowed a roar, clamped his lips shut, and closed his eyes. His rough breathing looked like he was trying to force down his anger.
After a few deep breaths, he gathered himself and murmured low.
“...Only this once.”
“How could there be any objection?”
“Tell the Im Family I’ll exact a price from them as well.” freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
“He said you would say that.”
“Hah. I’ve known that old bastard too long.”
Tang Jung laughed bitterly and pressed hard at his temple. His gaze sank, dull and heavy. freewebnøvel.coɱ
In the grim atmosphere, my mouth went dry. I swallowed and looked back and forth between Tang Jung and Wi Jigok. Noticing my stare, Tang Jung gestured.
“Sohae. Step outside for a moment. Your grandfather has urgent matters to discuss with a guest.”
His voice was so cold it raised goosebumps. My shoulders shrank on their own.
Reading the room, I slipped away.
******
Wi Jigok studied Tang Jung with a peculiar expression.
He’d knocked on the Tang estate’s gate prepared to lose an arm.
But his resolve ended up meaningless—the Poison King was... restrained.
No hidden weapon. Not even poison application. Was this really that eccentric Poison King?
It seemed he was mindful of the disciple who had been present.
Swallowing a dry laugh, Wi Jigok let his gaze linger on the place where the girl had vanished.
“Seems she’s a disciple you treasure.”
“That isn’t your business.”
At the sharp reaction, Wi Jigok became certain.
That wasn’t an ordinary disciple.
They said the Poison King, who’d shut himself up in the Tang estate and lived in seclusion, had begun sending word again lately...
Looks like it was for that child.
They say the older a monster is when he takes a disciple, the more foolishly doting he becomes. What a spectacle.
He stroked his beard, trying to fix the girl’s appearance in his memory.
Sohae, was it...?
If they brought her into the Martial Alliance at the right time, she could become a card capable of moving the Poison King.
“If the Im Family handed over the Jade Ring Token, it won’t be something small. Fine. What is it?”
Snapping back at Tang Jung’s words, Wi Jigok lowered his head.
“We need your help, as the supreme authority of poison. Please help us produce an antidote.”
“Explain properly.”
“The number of Alliance members going missing during missions has been increasing. At first, we thought it was simple desertion, but the Covert Investigation Hall investigated, and it wasn’t that. Every missing member was found a wreck—having lost their memory.”
“You’re saying they were kidnapped.”
“Something like that. From the circumstances, it seemed they were used as test subjects... then discarded.”
“So it’s serious enough for you to move personally. But what antidote are you talking about?”
“The rescued members show the same symptoms as opium addiction. The Divine Therapist prescribed various antidotes, but none of them worked.”
“Did you bring it?”
Wi Jigok nodded and set a small vial in front of Tang Jung.
“This. Extracted from the blood of an addicted Alliance member. In the Alliance, we call it Demon Vitality.”
Tang Jung slowly opened the stopper. When he poured the contents into a teacup, a vile stench spread.
The smell was so strong it made you want to retch. Wi Jigok covered his nose with his sleeve.
Tang Jung didn’t care. He dipped into it and tasted it.
“Ephedra and aconite are definitely in here. They used only ingredients with awakening effects. Trying to numb pain? What did the Im Family say?”
“They asked us to identify the mineral poison mixture. And... he said to tell you there are traces of a Blood-Yin Hex-Worm being used.”
After finishing, Wi Jigok met Tang Jung’s eyes—calm, unblinking.
“...Hah. So that’s why the Im Family stepped into Martial Alliance business. There was a reason.”
Murderous intent rose in Tang Jung’s gaze.
“So the Demonic Sect... those damnable things... have started moving.”
