"AAAAAAAH!!!"
A scream closer to a beast's howl than a human voice.
Rough. Threatening, with not a shred of restraint left in it.
As if to prove it, the murderous intent that flooded the entire floor surged, then a thick, blood-red Sword Flame blazed up fiercely.
It looked as if the hall itself had caught fire. But while real fire burns people, that ominous Sword Flame cuts them down.
Swoosh.
In an instant, the martial artists of the Heavenly Poison Sect were struck down in one place after another, tumbling across the floor.
These were all masters who had reached the Peak Realm, yet despite deploying excellent formations, they died one after another without being able to do anything to a single intruder.
"Of all times, why does a monster like this have to show up now…! The sect leader is so close to completing the Grand Ritual!"
The elder of the Heavenly Poison Sect ground his teeth, yet he could not go to his subordinates' aid and could only watch. To be precise, he had no choice but to watch.
At the very least, the spot where he stood was the one place that held a slight possibility of bringing down the lawless intruder.
The Heavenly Poison Sect's great hall served to announce its might to the outside world, and internally, it was meant to preserve the authority of the close confidants who had long served the sect leader.
The First Floor was a space used by everyone in the Heavenly Poison Sect. But above it, each floor had its own master.
The Second Floor was the domain of the First Elder, who had played a major role in gathering the remnants of the Five Poison Sect and bringing them under the sect leader's command.
And for a martial artist—especially one who had mastered the poison art—it was only common sense to prepare a hidden trump card in one's own territory.
The First Elder's subordinates who were dying now had stepped forward to buy time until their preparations were complete.
They hadn't been able to hold out for long, though.
In an instant, the Second Floor was drenched in blood. The furniture had been cut down along with the people, leaving nothing standing higher than waist level.
At last, the First Elder could face the culprit behind all of this directly.
A swordsman walked toward him, drenched in blood from head to toe, staggering like a drunkard. Behind him, corpses remained like footprints.
He radiated a killing intent so intense that even the First Elder, who had reached Transcendent Peak, found it hard to breathe—yet his appearance was surprisingly youthful.
But what caught the First Elder's eye wasn't something so trivial.
It was the eyes.
His gaze, tinged with the blood-red light that heralded Qi Deviation, was as sharp as a drawn sword, and within it raged a killing intent so fierce it seemed ready to burn the entire world to ash.
Anyone who saw it could not deny it—those were the eyes of a Slaughter Ghost.
Yet, for some reason, the First Elder felt that the redness in those eyes was not the red of blood, nor the red of flame, but the red of rust.
That gaze, which seemed to judge all things in the world as either worthy of being cut down or not, was as sharp as a blade—yet rusted through.
The relentless heat radiating from those wide-open eyes seemed to want to burn everything they beheld, but it was not the blaze of a roaring fire; it was closer to the dying warmth of embers already spent.
Even to him, a man who had lived as a Martial Artist for many years and had seen all manner of things—including his own sect being exterminated and then rebuilt—this was something quite unfamiliar.
"A vicious one, aren't you. With such cruel hands, I take it you hold a grudge against the Heavenly Poison Sect."
"…"
"But this is where it ends. You've crossed the line far too many times. Do you dare to run wild like a naked thunderbolt in the territory of the Heavenly Poison Sect, of all places?"
"…"
The First Elder was the one caught off guard by Cheon Hwi's silent, steady approach.
He had hoped to buy some time through conversation since his subordinates had died faster than expected, but he hadn't anticipated that Cheon Hwi wouldn't react at all.
Yet he couldn't simply back down here either.
He had to appease the spirits of his fallen subordinates, prevent the Heavenly Poison Sect from facing the danger of extermination like the Five Poison Sect had… and above all, he couldn't allow anyone to interfere with the sect leader's Grand Ritual.
Why give away an entire floor of the hall, when he could have just built a nice house outside or granted authority to a close associate in some other way?
Because this was also part of the preparation for the Grand Ritual—the day the Heavenly Poison Sect leader would find the Poison Spirit Constitution and claim its power as his own.
One who has reached a realm through poison art is no different from a deadly poison creature.
Just as a formation requires its artifacts, the Heavenly Poison Sect's elders and two Protectors can assist the sect leader's Grand Ritual simply by remaining on their respective floors, and during the ritual, they must not leave their designated floor.
If they did, they would waste the precious Poison Spirit Constitution and the Grand Ritual would surely end in failure.
"An old body that has lived long enough. If I die, I die here; if I live, I live here."
Even if the First Elder's life were to end, the poison steeped into his flesh would remain, continuing to assist the sect leader's Grand Ritual.
"Never again! No one will ever look down on the Heavenly Poison Sect… or the Five Poison Sect!"
The First Elder stomped his feet hard and spread his arms wide, spitting out his long-held goal.
At the same time, from his sleeves, his collar, and his wide-open mouth, all manner of poison insects began to burst forth.
No, that wasn't all. The wall behind the First Elder split open, and poison creatures several times that number came pouring out.
It was a truly bizarre sight, but given that Yunnan was known for its venomous insects and snakes, it was only natural that the Five Poison Sect, born in such a land, would develop its martial arts around exploiting them.
Where the Tang Clan poisoned their opponents directly by coating hidden weapons with venom, the Five Poison Sect controlled specially bred poison creatures to do the job.
And the First Elder was a veteran master renowned for his poison art since the days when the Five Poison Sect still stood tall.
"You must have drunk quite a bit of poison by now, yet it's having little effect—seems you've got some fine Blood Poison Wine in you! But let's see if you can withstand this too!"
The Five Poison Sect's martial arts were ambiguous techniques—neither truly martial arts nor sorcery. That gave them unpredictable power, but also clear limitations.
Yet even after the Five Poison Sect was exterminated and the Heavenly Poison Sect was rebuilt by someone from the Tang Clan, the First Elder still took pride in the Five Poison Sect's martial arts.
He had released the cages of poison creatures he had personally bred and refined. He hadn't had time to gather them all, but there were more than enough to bury a single person.
Those that could fly blanketed the sky, and those that crawled across the ground filled every inch of space, leaving no room to even set a foot down.
No matter how great a martial artist, it would be impossible to dodge or cut down all of them.
Of course, given the overwhelming martial prowess Cheon Hwi had displayed just moments ago, the First Elder wasn't optimistic enough to think this single move would bring him down.
It was enough to land just one hit. Poison, once it seeped in, would continue to break down the opponent.
Even if he himself fell, the next floor—and the floor after that—would have a blood-crazed monster to take him down. That was his judgment.
But it didn't take long for the First Elder's hopes to shatter.
Whoosh!
The killing intent that had been spreading wildly around Cheon Hwi grew even more vicious. More precisely, the killing intent that had been rampaging without purpose instinctively concentrated itself to clear away the obstacles in front of it.
The killing intent that had been enough to cover the entire first floor and disturb the breathing of a Transcendent Peak martial artist now condensed into a single direction.
No matter how bizarre a poison creature born from years of refinement, in the end it was still a mere beast. It was impossible for it to withstand Cheon Hwi's full killing intent.
Thud. Thud, thud.
One by one, the poison insects fell. Those crawling along the ground buried their heads into the dirt, and those at the rear, still relatively intact, could not defy the First Elder's command and advanced forward, only to meet the same fate.
He hadn't even swung his sword. Simply by staring and directing his killing intent, everything the First Elder had built over a lifetime was destroyed.
"Th-this is… what…"
As if denying reality, the First Elder's chin trembled. But what his eyes beheld was no illusion.
The poison creatures he had raised with such care had been annihilated before they could even touch Cheon Hwi's body.
The First Elder, still reeling from shock at Cheon Hwi's sudden approach, hastily swung his hand.
The Five Poison Sect's secret art was not merely about handling poison creatures. After all, the most powerful poison creature was inevitably the practitioner who had mastered the poison art itself.
The First Elder poured his internal energy into his sharply raised fingernails as he executed his claw technique.
His hand gestures tore through the air, wreathed in a purple aura tinged with poison energy.
Most claw techniques carried a rough, beast-like quality, but the First Elder's technique was somewhat different.
It was a technique that was both secretive and swift—like the fangs of a venomous snake, reminiscent of a poison insect's stinger.
It was not a martial art suited for prolonged exchanges, but it was devastating on first encounter.
Given the nature of poison arts, a single well-placed strike would lead to victory, so the First Elder aimed for Cheon Hwi's neck with a faint glimmer of hope.
Squelch!
Cheon Hwi twisted his body slightly, taking the strike aimed at his neck on his chest. The rippling energy tore through his clothes and upper body.
The wound itself was not deep, but the First Elder's lips curled into a smile as he confirmed that the poison energy had seeped properly into the flesh.
"It's done—!"
And that became the First Elder's last words.
His vision spun as he rose into the air, tumbling end over end. Only then did the First Elder realize his neck had been severed.
Instead of dodging or blocking the First Elder's technique, Cheon Hwi had let it hit him and swung his sword in the same motion.
'But you'll be dead soon enough.'
Before his head hit the floor, the First Elder's fading consciousness held a hint of lofty confidence.
No matter how remarkable the Blood Poison Wine, no one could withstand having the poison he had cultivated his entire life directly injected into their body.
He might not be able to kill Cheon Hwi right this moment, but as planned, the poison would continue to gnaw at his body through the next floor, or perhaps the one after that, until it finally brought him down.
…That was what he had thought.
With the same rusted gaze and stumbling gait, Cheon Hwi passed by the First Elder he had just cut down.
As the distance between them closed, the First Elder saw it.
From beneath the torn flesh, a violet poison liquid seeped out from the sword wound.
It was as if the poison had tried to burrow into Cheon Hwi's body, only to be repelled and forced back out.
By the time the blood-soaked realization came, he had already grasped that Cheon Hwi's clothes were the familiar green robes of the Tang Clan.
Only then did the First Elder understand the identity of the sudden intruder and the reason he was rampaging so madly.
But it was already far too late. The First Elder's head was already rolling across the floor.
Thud. Rattle.
Through his fading consciousness, a small muttering drifted in.
"Three floors up…"
The First Elder's head, which could not fail to understand the meaning of those words, lamented.
'Sect Leader. It seems our greed was too much.'
That was the death of the old master who had long terrorized Yunnan with his infamy.
***
The Third and Fourth Floors were no different from the Second. If anything, they were even more overwhelming.
These were the floors overseen by the Left Protector and Right Protector of the Heavenly Poison Sect, respectively—both masters who had learned the Tang Clan's martial arts directly from the Heavenly Poison Sect Leader rather than from the Five Poison Sect.
Hidden weapons and Poison Application were all too familiar to Cheon Hwi.
The Left Protector of the Third Floor had every martial art broken apart and his heart pierced through in less than a sijin.
The Right Protector, frightened by Cheon Hwi's Aura, threw himself out the window from the Fourth Floor without even a moment to use the tricks he had prepared.
The Right Protector's subordinates, having lost their will to fight, fled one by one in his wake, and only a handful remained loyal to the Heavenly Poison Sect to the very end and lost their lives.
Thus, Cheon Hwi, who had single-handedly driven the Heavenly Poison Sect to the brink of Clan Extermination, opened the final door.
The Fifth Floor.
There stood the Poison Demon, his brow deeply furrowed.
And Tang So-wol, unconscious, lying upon the altar.
"Ah."
A sliver of reason returned to Cheon Hwi's eyes, which had been churning with blood light.
To him, Tang So-wol was that kind of existence.