"Ah."
My body was hot. It didn't take long to realize that it was because of the blood I'd been drenched in.
Once I wiped the blood splattered across my face, my vision, stained red, returned to its original colors.
The contours that had been distorted like sloppy brushstrokes straightened out, and the tangled past and present settled back into their proper places.
The reason I had thought I'd completely let go of returned, and the Qi Deviation subsided, if only a little.
All of it was so that I could keep one person in my sight.
Tang So-wol. She lay unconscious atop what appeared to be an altar, or perhaps a dais.
She appeared to have lost consciousness, but aside from that, she seemed unharmed. Seeing the energy around her gathering and tangling, it looked as though she had been in the middle of something when she was stopped.
Even at this very moment, the internal energy flowing so violently it seemed to grind her meridians apart, and the Killing Heart surging forth unbidden, were driving the Crazy Wolf Life-Stealing Art into a frenzy.
But that would not cloud my reason. At least, not as long as Tang So-wol was here.
As I let out a silent sigh of relief that Tang So-wol was safe, a man suddenly blocked my path.
He wore violet robes, but his hair and pupils were dyed a shade of green.
The Poison Demon, his brow deeply furrowed, exuded a menacing Aura as he spoke.
"How dare you! How dare you interfere with the Great Undertaking!"
"…It seems you don't care at all that most of the Heavenly Poison Sect died by my hand."
"Of course, their deaths are a pity, but they are not something that takes precedence over the Great Undertaking."
In the Poison Demon's voice as he spoke, there was less vengeance and more irritation and anger at having his work interrupted.
"The Great Undertaking. Surely you don't think you can claim the Poison Spirit Constitution as your own."
There are many special Constitutions in the martial world, and while some lament them, others envy and covet them.
Naturally, there had been considerable research into whether such Constitutions could be stolen or at least replicated, but… none of it had succeeded.
The Poison Demon could not possibly be unaware of this. He snorted, gathering his poison energy.
"Claim the Poison Spirit Constitution as mine? Why would I cling to such an uncertain prospect? I have already reached the very edge of the Transcendent Peak. The poison I hold surpasses that."
As he spoke, the Poison Demon, as if resisting the murderous intent I pressed upon him, emitted a faint energy from his entire body.
A toad-like figure, carrying poison on its body wherever it went. But that comparison was far too dismissive—it was far too threatening.
I must not touch him. My instincts, sharpened as much as my reason had dulled, were screaming a warning.
"Just one wall away from reaching the realm of the Poison Human. I have some interest in the difference between an innate Poison Human and an acquired one, but not enough to give up this opportunity."
"Then why did you kidnap Tang So-wol in the first place?"
"To cross that final wall, of course."
A vivid purple energy rippled above the Poison Demon's hand.
A palm technique steeped in poison energy. A single clean hit had been enough to drop me in an instant—that was how vicious this bastard was.
But now, he looked even more dangerous than he had back then.
The chaotic energy tangled around Tang So-wol began to coil around the Poison Demon's hand.
"The Poison Spirit Constitution is a constitution that stores poison within the body and allows it to be drawn out and used at will. If that's the case, then once it has grown sufficiently, if one were to wring out a body that has absorbed various poisons and condense it into a single drop of poison… and then claim it as one's own… it would surely serve as a stepping stone toward the realm of the Poison Human."
"What…?"
"Don't worry. I won't kill you. I never expected to reach it in a single step anyway."
Only then did I realize what the energy coiling around the Poison Demon's hand truly was.
Unlike his own purple internal energy, this energy glowed with a faint green light. It was Tang So-wol's internal energy… no, a portion of the poison energy she possessed.
He hadn't been able to extract it all or condense it as he had planned, but it seemed he had succeeded in the extraction itself.
He must have been in the middle of drawing the poison energy out of Tang So-wol.
"Once squeezed dry, the vessel will be empty. Then I can feed it poison as I please and compound it as I wish. The second drop will serve as an even higher pedestal."
"You madman."
"Heh. I don't know how you still have the wits to speak in that state, but anyone can see who the craziest one here is. It's you, you Slaughter Ghost."
The Poison Demon snarled as he took his stance. I understood his goal now.
He meant to periodically shear the sheep, using Tang So-wol's body as a vessel to mix and condense various poisons and harvest them, over and over again.
Naturally, Tang So-wol's body could not remain intact through that process.
She would endure excruciating pain as if her Dantian were being shattered each time, and even if her actual Dantian broke, her Poison Spirit Constitution would remain intact, so the Poison Demon's experiments would continue.
In the meantime, Tang So-wol's body and mind would slowly deteriorate. I didn't know when it would happen, but in the end, she would meet her death.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
The heart that had been relieved at Tang So-wol's safety clenched tight, then began to pound so loudly it was deafening.
Thump! Thump!
"I heard you clearly. Now let me tell you my plan."
Perhaps the frantic pounding of my heart had become a kind of signal.
The anger that had calmed somewhat while I was looking at Tang So-wol surged up again, seething.
The flow of internal energy, which I had thought couldn't possibly grow any more violent, began to quicken—slightly, but steadily.
Without resisting the Qi Deviation, I surrendered my body to it once more and continued speaking.
"You die here today. That is my plan."
The killing intent, blazing up like a wildfire, focuses on the opponent before me. No—on the sword meant to cut that opponent down. And then, the footwork follows.
CRASH!
The Thunder Step, true to its name, spits out a thunderous roar as it propels my body forward. At the same time, I weave in the mystery of the Gwiyeongbo.
Each step moves at a different speed—footwork so erratic that it defies prediction.
A martial art so ingrained in my body that I can execute it with ease even in the midst of Qi Deviation. Yet there was one difference from before.
The internal energy, raging beyond my ability to control, overflows and bursts out in every direction.
Like wading through a long-forgotten pool of blood, every step that touches the ground flashes with a dark crimson aura.
It was the very waste of internal energy I had once deemed so foolish, but… what reason was there to conserve internal energy now?
With an aura as if I would burn every last bit of internal energy left in my Dantian, I slammed it all into the sword.
Whoosh.
My sword, imbued with my killing intent, wrapped in a dark crimson Qi Flame, swung toward the Poison Demon's poison palm.
"Ahhhhh!"
A battle cry that burst from my lips on its own. The absurdly concentrated internal energy swelled the Sword Flame's size in an instant, then split the view in half.
"Such a brutish…!"
The Poison Demon hastily withdrew the hand he had been extending. However, though the hand had moved away, the energy wrapped around it continued forward.
A poison palm, a swirl of purple and green, flew at me in the shape of an open hand and collided with my sword.
Cha-ack!
Internal energy repelled internal energy, and my killing intent devoured the poison energy, burning it and tearing it apart.
However, the poison energy that remained after that did not scatter. Instead, it clung to my body.
It was too viscous to be called internal energy. If I had to compare it to something, it was closer to a liquid.
The sensation was similar to being wrapped in the damp fog of early morning, but the Poison Demon's poison was not so soft.
The vile energy seeped in through my nose and mouth, which I had involuntarily inhaled, and even squeezed its way through my pores.
Perhaps he thought that since he had already used a compound poison like the Seven Treasure Soul-Severing Powder, it wouldn't work on me again. From the very beginning, the Poison Demon was one who spewed out intense poison energy.
I didn't know what kind of poison it was. Even though I had heard all sorts of stories from Tang So-wol before my regression, and had lived in the Tang Clan for nearly four years afterward, this was a poison I didn't recognize at all.
Still, even its mere residue was enough to melt a person down.
My lungs and skin tingled, crying out in pain. If I let this poison burrow into my body as it was, it would break me down and slowly gnaw me apart.
In the past, that would certainly have been the case.
"Ptui!"
A dark purple liquid shot out of my mouth. It wasn't blood. It must have been poison that had squeezed into my body, only to be flushed out by the flow of my internal energy.
However, it wasn't perfect. I had been slightly poisoned, it seemed, as the pain in my lungs rising with every breath remained.
Though minor poisons had no effect on me, it appeared that vicious poisons still managed to take hold, little by little.
It wasn't enough to make me collapse in one blow, but fighting by simply taking hits like I did against the other Heavenly Poison Sect martial artists was out of the question.
Still, even against other opponents, the strategy of trading flesh could only be used once or twice anyway.
No matter how potent the poison, it wasn't enough to make me fall as pathetically as before. Wasn't that enough?
"So that's it. I wondered how you managed to climb this far, but you used Qi Deviation in that manner. You won't last long."
"I'll cut you down before that."
"A brat who hasn't lived even half my lifespan has quite the Aura. As I thought, I should have killed you on the spot even at the risk of danger."
Perhaps he judged that even with vicious poison, shooting poison energy from a distance was meaningless. Clicking his tongue, the Poison Demon thrust out his poison palm once more.
As I swung my sword to sever it, our energies tangled chaotically in the air.
Boom! Bang! Boom!
The crimson Qi Flame, burning with thick killing intent, stretched out to cut down the Poison Demon, but was blocked.
This was no simple projectile—the poison he had wrapped directly around his hand scattered my internal energy on contact, shattering the Sword Flame head-on.
Each individual strike carried far greater power on my side, but since my internal energy kept dispersing as if poisoned, the result was a stalemate.
All that remained in my sword, its internal energy scattered, was killing intent. And while killing intent could make the Poison Demon flinch, it could not take his life.
And so, the close-quarters battle continued.
Sometimes my sword carved into the Poison Demon's hide, sometimes his palm grazed my clothes.
Cuts both large and small accumulated on both their bodies, yet neither could land a decisive blow.
Was it because my sword was just a little sharper than the Poison Demon's palm technique?
Little by little. I was gaining the upper hand, ever so slightly… but the problem was that I would collapse before that advantage could bear fruit.
My meridians, already tattered from the Qi Deviation. And the Poison Demon's poison energy, which harmed my body with even the briefest exposure.
Even if I fought well and suddenly dropped dead at any moment, it would hardly be surprising.
I couldn't let it come to that. While I still had strength left, I had to force the issue and throw down a decisive gambit.
If the Poison Demon's poison could scatter my internal energy, but couldn't touch this killing intent of mine… then I needed an even denser killing intent.
And so, once again, I pulled out the thorn embedded in my heart and peered into the well within. But.
There was no more murderous intent to draw up. I was already furious to the utmost, pouring every shred of killing intent into my sword.
My killing intent is not infinite.
I am not the Heavenly Killing Star, after all.
…Still, I swing my sword anyway.
With nothing but the single-minded resolve to cut through.
"Ah."
In the midst of past and present tangled together by Qi Deviation, I suddenly understood.
That the reason I swung my sword was never to kill anyone.