Chapter 156: Chapter 156
“You are not the Poison King?”
Fifth Valley Lord Hong-rin gazed intently at Dok-ra-su. She had thought the Poison King was the only master in the Central Plains capable of handling poison to this degree, but looking at his reaction, that did not seem to be the case.
Dok-ra-su felt exceptionally pleased even by such a reaction. Giving his shoulders plenty of stiffness, he spoke in a confident voice.
“Indeed, speaking of me, I am the Number One Poison Demon Under Heaven. When it comes to poison, even the Poison King whom you fear so much serves me as his older brother.”
The Fifth Valley Lord flinched. The Poison King was known to be difficult to face alone, even for the First Valley Lord, the strongest in Poison Valley. For such a Poison King to serve him as an older brother…
She was surprised inwardly, but at the same time suspicious. No matter how she looked at him, she did not see that kind of great dignity.
Soon, the Fifth Valley Lord recalled a certain moniker. Come to think of it, did the Poison King not have an older brother who was not even like an older brother?
A loser who was pushed out of the Sichuan Tang Clan’s succession battle and fled, a madman obsessed with poison, a fugitive, a public enemy of the martial world, an eccentric, and so forth…
There were countless words describing him, and he was quite a famous figure among those who handled poison a bit, but those modifiers were all negative and filled with ridicule.
Only then did the Fifth Valley Lord’s expression ease.
“So the fool who was scared of his younger brother and ran away from home was right here. Yes, I wanted to meet you at least once.”
The corners of her red lips curled up in mockery.
It was a remark that thoroughly scraped at Dok-ra-su’s inferiority complex and weak point. If they had met just a single year earlier, Dok-ra-su would have flared up in rage as if having a seizure at those words.
However, Dok-ra-su wore a leisurely smile.
He had changed. At the turning point was precisely his encounter with Cheon Woo-jin.
Although he had harbored an inferiority complex toward the Poison King, after seeing a kid who had completely and distantly transcended realms, he wondered what meaning any of that had. Furthermore, he had recently treated the Poison King’s dementia.
Now the Poison King was no longer Dok-ra-su’s weakness. He was merely a needy younger brother who was a little frightening, but perhaps also pitiable.
“Are you trying to wage psychological warfare against me with such ridiculous words?”
“Actually, I intended to do that, but you are calmer than expected. As expected, you are a little different from the rumors.”
“I have eaten as much age as one can; would I fall for such a thing? Is that not the same for you as well?”
In an instant, the Fifth Valley Lord’s expression crumpled drastically.
Dok-ra-su burst into a cackle.
“What good is looking so sleek on the outside? In the first place, it is someone else’s skin, is it not? Who on earth is that lovely young woman? Whose skin did you wear after killing them again? Truly disgusting.”
Dok-ra-su looked at the Fifth Valley Lord with an expression suggesting he was truly sick with disgust, not just merely saying it with words.
“Shut up!”
The roar that erupted from the indignant Fifth Valley Lord’s mouth was not that of a woman. It was the grotesque voice of a middle-aged man: thick, raspy, and causing goosebumps to rise on whoever heard it.
Whether that was so or not, Dok-ra-su calmly continued speaking.
“I have also heard plenty of rumors about you. They say hardly anyone who deals with poison is in their right mind, but you are truly disgusting. No one suits words like pervert and deviant as well as you do. What on earth were you thinking, preying on young men and women, peeling off their skin, and roaming around wearing it? Just what kind of perversion is that?”
The Fifth Valley Lord trembled violently, unable to utter a single word.
In the first place, waging psychological warfare to enrage an opponent was Dok-ra-su’s specialty. It was to the extent that people who faced him and did not get angry were rare in all under heaven.
Moreover, if the opponent was such an ugly bastard, he could mock him as much as he wanted. However, Dok-ra-su felt that he was different from before.
“It seems I have changed as well. In the past, I would have dragged out the time, mocking and tormenting you all day long to drive you into madness. But now, I do not even want to exchange words with a disgusting bastard like you anymore. Seeing that I just want to strike you dead right away, as expected…”
Somehow, it seemed the place for him was neither the Black Overlord Castle nor the Demonic Cult. After meeting Cheon Woo-jin, meeting the members of the Hidden Dragon Squad, and meeting the Divine Physician, such thoughts increasingly arose without him even realizing it.
Seeing their chivalry and righteousness, he had begun to feel so ashamed of his past life.
“Enough. Just die.”
Dok-ra-su surged forward. Dark green poison qi was rounded in both of his hands.
Greatly alarmed, the Fifth Valley Lord pulled his body back. However, because he had not learned martial arts, that speed was noticeably slow.
Dok-ra-su did not let down his guard. He was confident he could smash the bastard’s head dead if he just properly stepped forward a few paces, but…
There was a reason why bastards who did not even know martial arts were called the Three Powers of the Border Lands alongside the North Sea Ice Palace and the Beast Palace.
Sure enough, two snakes that no one knew when they had approached sprang up from the left and right.
One was the Seven-Step Snake, possessing a deadly poison that melted internal organs whole, and the other was the Red-Spotted White Snake, which caused skin to rot and fester away.
Snakes were originally like this. Because they were animals close to spiritual creatures, they were so stealthy that it was hard to sense their presence, and their movements were also so agile that one was prone to end up in the grave without even knowing the reason if careless.
Dok-ra-su calmly poured out palm force to the left and right. Just before sinking their fangs into his arms, the two venomous snakes exploded and died with their entire bodies bursting.
At the same time, the poison qi the venomous snakes had harbored throughout their lives erupted in all directions. If it were an ordinary martial artist, responding would have been difficult, but Dok-ra-su was also a master of poison arts true to his reputation.
Crossing both arms that had poured out palm force this time, he unleashed a poison mist that counteracted snake venom. Before the snake venom could even touch Dok-ra-su, it was completely neutralized.
In the meantime, the Fifth Valley Lord had widened the distance quite far. Between him and Dok-ra-su, dozens of venomous snakes had taken their positions before anyone noticed, writhing and threatening.
Of course, those venomous snakes would not be all of them. It was obvious that all kinds of poisons were scattered throughout the trees and ground.
“It seems Poison Valley still stubbornly clings to an old-fashioned method. Snake venom, that is something I really only saw when I was young.”
“It is not old-fashioned, but tradition. No matter how much deadly poison humans create, how could it compare to that of creatures born harboring poison from birth?”
Poison Valley believed in nature’s poison. They believed that no matter how many poisons were mixed and manufactured, one could not ultimately defeat the poison that served as their foundation.
It was a conviction contrasting with the Tang Clan, who called the Formless Poison the dream poison and devoted their entire lives to creating it.
“Well, ordinarily that might be so, but would it not be a little different if the ones making and scattering that poison were the Poison King and the Poison Demon?”
“You have been using the moniker of Poison Demon repeatedly since earlier, but who on earth in this world calls someone like you a Poison Demon?”
In the history of the martial world, Poison Demon was a moniker used only by a master who, along with the Poison King, had reached the pinnacle of contemporary poison arts.
The previous Poison Demon was a person from the Heavenly Demon Cult who had become a disciple of the Dark Emperor. Even now, more than thirty years after his death, there was no new Poison Demon.
Because the contemporary Poison King was so strong, no one dared to stand as his equal.
Despite the Fifth Valley Lord’s mockery, Dok-ra-su flashed a grin.
“Who needs to call me that? Originally, life flows as one speaks for oneself. I will become the Poison Demon. No, I have already become the Poison Demon. The Number One Under Heaven and the Poison King will call me so.”
“Is there a Number One Under Heaven in this era?”
The Fifth Valley Lord continued to speak. Unfortunately, Dok-ra-su was among the quickest-witted individuals in all under heaven.
“Your tongue is needlessly long. Why, is the Poison Demon whom you met in person so different from the Dok-ra-su of rumors? You have no way of winning at all, do you?”
The Fifth Valley Lord bit his lip. The outward appearance was a young and lovely woman, but Dok-ra-su, knowing that an eerie and hideous middle-aged man lay within the core, shuddered with disgust.
“Stop making that kind of expression! It makes me want to smash your skull with a single palm right this instant!”
It had been a while since he spoke like Black Elder.
Black Elder’s method seemed to work anywhere as expected, for the Fifth Valley Lord soon admitted it obediently.
“You are right. Because I did not know that Dok-ra-su was this kind of master.”
The poison on the forearm initially grabbed by Dok-ra-su had still not been neutralized. He was merely blocking it by sprinkling other poisons onto his body so the poison could not spread.
“Do you perhaps have any thought of coming to Poison Valley? Someone of your caliber would even be able to receive the position of the sixth valley lord. Rather than living while receiving all kinds of contempt and ridicule in the Central Plains, I think it would not be bad either to come to Poison Valley and live while handling and researching the poison you love so much all day long.”
“Tempting.”
“I know you can kill me right now. But it will not be an easy choice. The poisons I can scatter on you right before I die immediately exceed a hundred kinds. Do you think you are immune to all those poisons? You know, do you not, what happens in the end when those who learned poison arts fight each other.”
If one did not seize overwhelming superiority, both died. Because poison was something that did not lose its might even at the moment of death.
Having spoken thus, the Fifth Valley Lord waved his hand. Then, miraculously, the dozens of venomous snakes that had blocked the path between the two scattered to the left and right, creating a path.
The Fifth Valley Lord extended a hand toward Dok-ra-su.
“Come to Poison Valley with me. Go and unfold your dreams to your heart’s content.”
Of course, from his extended hand, an extremely minute powdered poison that could not even be seen by the eye spread out. It was gathered from the spores of the Mad Demon Mushroom that only grew in the Southern Barbarians.
When one breathed in those minute spores, the heart became needlessly amplified. Sadness grew greater, making one want to take one’s own life, while joy swelled uncontrollably, making one even want to give away all one’s wealth as a gift to someone seen for the first time.
In such a state, he had handed him a proposal that could only be tempting, so the outcome was obvious.
Dok-ra-su slowly walked down the path of snakes.
The Fifth Valley Lord, still with his hand outstretched, looked intently at Dok-ra-su. Whether the bastard was truly poisoned or merely acting to play tricks, it did not matter much.
‘Just take three more steps.’
If so, he was confident he could inflict horrific pain upon him before that bastard could even attempt anything.
Just like that, one step, two steps…
Contrary to the Fifth Valley Lord’s wish, the final step was not taken. Dok-ra-su came to an abrupt halt where he stood and grinned broadly.
“Did you take me for a fool?”
“Damn it!”
Uttering a curse, the Fifth Valley Lord waved his sleeves. Soon, hornets that poured out from his sleeves surged toward Dok-ra-su at tremendous speed. Their numbers were so great that they looked like pitch-black smoke.
The poisonous insects and venomous snakes handled by the Fifth Valley Lord displayed extraordinarily fast movements due to being constantly fed stimulants. In particular, although for a brief moment, the hornets could move as fast as a typical peerless master.
If he had taken just one more step, there would have been no room for someone like Dok-ra-su to dodge, but like a master who used poison arts, the bastard was needlessly cautious and quick-witted.
In the end, he could only hope that Dok-ra-su had let his guard down a bit more, and that the arousal effect of the hornets appeared a bit more intensely.
Drawing his body far back, Dok-ra-su poured out palm force.
Dozens of hornets exploded in midair. But that was only a tiny fraction. Hundreds of hornets still surged menacingly toward Dok-ra-su.
Bzzzz!
The fluttering sound produced by hundreds of hornets sounded like music playing at the entrance of hell.
Watching that scene, the Fifth Valley Lord made a fervent prayer in his heart. Just one, please let just a single one attach to him and it is a success.
Did his earnest prayer reach heaven?
On the nape of the neck of Dok-ra-su, who was dodging so well, just a single hornet touched down. As Dok-ra-su shook his head wildly in great fright, the remaining hundreds of hornets did not miss that gap.
Dok-ra-su’s entire body was covered pitch-black in an instant. It was an extreme poison of a degree that could kill a first-rate master just by being stung once. Hundreds of them would sting all at once with such extreme poison.
‘He will truly die while suffering horrific pain.’
The Fifth Valley Lord wore a triumphant smile. In fact, Dok-ra-su let out a long scream of agony and fell backward. The hornets continued to pile layer upon layer on top of Dok-ra-su. Their numbers were so immense that in the end, they formed the shape of a sphere, to the point where that place looked like Dok-ra-su’s grave.
After writhing several times, it soon grew quiet.
The Fifth Valley Lord curled the corners of his mouth and sneered.
“Tsk, it would have been good if you bent your pride, grabbed even the hems of the Poison King’s trousers, and held out in the Tang Clan.”
On top of the quiet Dok-ra-su, hundreds of hornets were still crawling gruesomely. Stepping forward, the Fifth Valley Lord brushed the hornets aside with his bare hands and spoke.
“Everyone step aside. I must bring this bastard’s swollen and burst corpse as a gift to the First Valley Lord.”
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, a hand thrust out from between the grave made by the hornets. Having his forearm suddenly seized, the Fifth Valley Lord was thrown into great fluster.
“Wh-What!”
Soon, Dok-ra-su stood up from his spot. The hornets beat their wings with a frenzied roar and flinched wildly to thrust their poison stingers, but…
Dok-ra-su brushed off the hornets with his hand far too nonchalantly. Smoke was rising from his entire body along with a burning smell.
“No matter how fast and great a poison they harbor, are they not merely hornets in the end? Since they are inherently weak to heat, if you warm them up just a little, they lose their strength and die.”
Of course, emitting that much heat from one’s entire body was by no means an easy feat. That is, unless one had consumed the Sun-Rivaling Flower, counted among the highest rank of spiritual herbs harboring fire qi.
“Th-That, Extreme Yang Poison…!”
“Hahaha, you have an eye after all. If it were foolish bastards, they would not even know how great a realm this is, and would have merely poured out curses saying that I used poison underhandedly.”
Dok-ra-su laughed as if he were having so much fun.
Even though he had consumed the Sun-Rivaling Flower and reached a magnificent realm, those he met afterward were the patriarch of the Six Demonic Families of the Demonic Cult or bastards like the Poison King, so he had hardly felt it.
Only now did he vividly feel what kind of realm he had reached.
The fearful eyes of the Fifth Valley Lord looking at him caused a strange pleasure to well up.
“Sp-Spare me.”
That was all the Fifth Valley Lord could say.
Even so, Dok-ra-su nodded his head readily.
“Sure. Because I am about to become a martial artist of the Righteous Path now.”
In an instant, hope flashed in the Fifth Valley Lord’s eyes.
Of course, it was only for a very brief moment. His forearm held by Dok-ra-su began to grow hotter and hotter.
“Wh-What are you doing!”
“There is an enlightenment I recently gained. I am definitely a guy crazy about poison. Even though I trained it to save people, I thought that if I applied it just a little, I could carry out interesting things.”
He channeled a very small amount of Extreme Yang Poison into the Fifth Valley Lord’s entire body. The hot poison burned the qi pathways of his entire body from the inside and gradually rose upward.
Naturally, because he had not learned martial arts, let alone the Upper Dantian, most of the qi channels throughout his body were blocked.
“I shall personally clear your qi channels, hahahahaha!”
Dok-ra-su’s laughter continued for a long time.
In fact, the Extreme Yang Poison forcibly melted his qi channels and gradually ascended, soon stopping before his throat.
When treating the Poison King, the qi channels in the head were so delicate that he had entrusted it to Cheon Woo-jin. Now, there was no need for that.
“At that time, that guy was truly cool. I should take this opportunity to practice once as well.”
“Wh-What are you trying to do…”
“Before that, let us tear off this disgusting skin.”
Dok-ra-su ripped off the skin of the Fifth Valley Lord’s face. Then his real face was revealed, and it was a very ordinary-looking elderly man. That fact felt even more disgusting and ugly.
Clicking his tongue briefly, Dok-ra-su drove the Extreme Yang Poison sharply up into the Fifth Valley Lord’s head.
“Aaaaargh!”
The Fifth Valley Lord convulsed wildly. The Extreme Yang Poison rummaged wildly through his head, truly touching or burning all sorts of things.
Soon, the Fifth Valley Lord, whose eyes rolled back, drooled incessantly.
Even after Dok-ra-su removed his hand, he could not speak properly and was merely making strange noises.
He had truly become a complete idiot. The martial art he had trained to treat dementia could, depending on how it was used, conversely make an opponent like this.
“Whew, as expected, I cannot do it. It was truly fortunate that I entrusted it to that kid Woo-jin.”
The Fifth Valley Lord was spared as promised. However, he would drag him alive and show him to the old men of the Martial Alliance.
Saying that he had captured this bastard. Saying that he had saved their subordinates.
Dok-ra-su was a man of good intuition. He knew better than anyone that the opportunity had finally arrived for him, who had wandered aimlessly his entire life and was rejected even by the Black Overlord Castle, to finally settle down.
“As expected, they say human affairs are unpredictable. Is that not right?”
Dok-ra-su asked while looking at the sky. It was a question directed at the guy whom he had once feared, but looking back, was the only friend of his long life.
“Ah, is it not here?”
Soon Dok-ra-su looked at the ground, not the sky. It was a sorry story, but down there suited that guy much better than heaven.
‘I pity even King Yama. To take such a guy into hell of all people. Tsk, tsk. He will be fortunate if he does not get beaten up by him.’
Dok-ra-su, thinking thus, directed his light footsteps in the direction where the Martial Alliance was located.