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Poisons are broadly divided into four major types.
Animal poison, plant poison, mineral poison, and artificially made chemical poison.
Snake venom is an animal poison, and it carries either a powerful neurotoxin or a hemorrhagic toxin.
The mutated seven-spotted snake has both.
If it bites you, you die from bleeding, or you die from respiratory failure caused by paralysis.
'What the hell is this.'
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
And it was not even a small one.
Because of genetic mutation caused by mana, its body was as thick as an average man's thigh.
Hisss! Hiss!
Climbing up the steep cliff, a giant mutated seven-spotted snake slowly approached, flicking its creepy tongue.
If this were a perfect Turtle Breathing Technique, it would recognize him as nothing more than a log and simply pass by. But right now, the technique was incomplete.
Body temperature and breathing were the biggest problems.
A complete Turtle Breathing Technique would erase even those.
'Please just pass by.'
He had learned the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art, which was based on poison.
But in his current state, that thing's poison was far too strong.
As with all things, it was forbidden to train with strong poison from the very beginning.
The mechanism of poison arts was simple.
Adaptation.
Starting with weak poison, and slowly remodeling the body so it could endure stronger toxic energy. That was why accepting the poison of this mutated seven-spotted snake was impossible.
Taeju kept his eyes half-open and did not so much as move a finger.
Just let this danger pass.
Give me enough time to at least create poison essence.
If you do that, even if we meet later, I'll spare you.
But there was the breathing and body heat he could not erase.
The creature might already have recognized him.
It seemed to be wondering whether it should eat him or ignore him.
'I'm going insane. Can't you just pass by ... damn it!'
In the end, it seemed to decide to eat him.
Chiriririt!
The creature raised its head.
At the same time, the mutated seven-spotted snake sank its sharp fangs into the back of his neck.
'Goddammit!'
Taeju reflexively raised his arm and blocked the creature's mouth.
Crunch!
Crack!
"Ugh!"
Even his right forearm, which had at least still been intact, broke.
But the problem was not the broken arm.
The sticky liquid injected through those sharp fangs.
In an instant, it flowed through his blood vessels and spread throughout his whole body.
'Urgh!'
A scream almost burst out of him, but he had to bite his lips hard.
If he made a sound, those bastards might discover him.
Instead, his internal organs were screaming.
That horrific snake venom ran through his blood vessels and melted his organs.
The mutated poison possessed by a mutated venomous snake.
Even in that short time, his body had already been badly ruined.
Taeju's eyes were bloodshot red.
The unbearable pain made it feel as if he were about to lose consciousness.
Die like this?
Not a chance.
Who did he think he was!
Supreme Poison Demon.
Though his flesh was pathetically weak, his soul alone was another soul of Dang Gun-ak, the one who had even melted and killed the Heavenly Demon.
Taeju began circulating the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art.
The risks he currently faced.
First, he had accepted a poison that was far too strong for the beginning stage, and second, he had to circulate the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art on a cliff instead of in a safe place. And on top of that, while enduring the attacks of a Magical Beast.
It was extremely dangerous.
If things went even slightly wrong, he would have to end his life inside that creature's belly.
Anyway, it was all or nothing.
The greater the risk, the greater the reward would be.
Inside his head were perfectly preserved the profound principles of the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art that Dang Gun-ak had trained in for his entire life.
A grandmaster of poison.
He vividly remembered eating even the poison of a thousand-year-old Imugi as if it were a snack, so what could this mere seven-spotted snake possibly do to him?
Kim Taeju guided the snake venom that had entered his blood vessels.
The incantation of the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art flowed naturally from him even without conscious effort.
'To the dantian….'
Open the Okdang acupoint and Geogwol acupoint, block the Cheondol acupoint, guide it to the Jungwan acupoint, then drive it into the Gihae acupoint.
However.
'Kgh!'
As if refusing to submit quietly, the poison of the mutated seven-spotted snake resisted fiercely. To think he could barely handle even this.
It was humiliating.
He was so ashamed he could go mad.
He could not face the other self from another world, Dang Gun-ak, the Supreme Poison Demon.
'Fuck, this is humiliating as hell.'
The toxic energy faltered for a moment.
This was the chance!
Compress the toxic energy that had entered the dantian and create poison essence, the foundation of the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art.
The mutated seven-spotted snake's attack was also fierce.
It had thought he was nothing more than weak prey, yet he dared resist?
The gigantic seven-spotted snake coiled around Taeju's body.
Crrrk!
The sound of something breaking, was it his shoulder blade? His spine?
Then, with Taeju still wrapped in its coils, it fell from the cliff to the ground below.
Thud!
A terrifying poison that melted his blood vessels.
His heart was gradually stiffening, making it hard even to breathe.
His consciousness was fading.
'I need to stay conscious ...
Even so, Taeju did not stop circulating the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art.
No, even if he wanted to stop, he could not.
An ultimate confrontation.
Now only one thing remained.
Would he be eaten by the creature, or would he control the toxic energy and create poison essence?
Taeju endured, and endured again.
Creak!
The seven-spotted snake's strength also grew stronger.
***
Staff Sergeant Go Youngho ultimately returned empty-handed to the Daechongbong Forward Base and met Lieutenant Jang Indong.
Hearing the news that they had failed to secure Kim Taeju's corpse, Jang Indong frowned as much as he possibly could.
"The highest probability is that the orcs took him?"
"The place he fell was a cliff, sir. Once he rolled down there, there is no way he could possibly be unharmed. Especially with the body of a Mana-Rejector."
"What if he's alive?"
"Pardon?"
"Will you take responsibility?"
"Th-that.... "
The cleanest way was to write it off as an accidental death.
Even if that Mana-Rejector trash was garbage, he was still a general's child.
If there were suspicions of murder, things would become extremely troublesome.
Of course, the higher-ups would block it off, but still.
"Should we process it like this?"
No.
At best, it would only be desertion, or failure to return.
That was not enough.
They had to find it.
Definite proof that Kim Taeju was dead.
'It can't be helped.'
He would have to move personally.
Honda Mitsui.
The second daughter of Kyushu Territory of the Samhan Empire, and she held enormous influence in the military as well.
She wanted definite proof of Kim Taeju's death.
If he had been eaten by orcs, they had to bring back at least some trace of what remained.
"Gather the platoon members right now. Only the ones who know how to keep their mouths shut."
"Yes, understood."
***
When he was little, his father had been endlessly kind.
'I will definitely cure you. At the very least, you must live longer than your father.'
But after he remarried, and his half-siblings were born and grew up.
"Enlist. Go to the Seoraksan Forward Base."
"How long are you going to keep wasting food like some unemployed bum? I already spoke well to my battalion commander, so just work hard at administrative duty. You will never have to face a Magical Beast."
His father's cold gaze.
He had no choice but to obey.
He understood.
He was a son born as a Mana-Rejector, one who could die at any time, so it was probably better to cut off affection instead.
And his stepmother, Madam Mitsui, as well.
'Taeju, don't worry. It's not like you have to stay there forever. You can just come back after your discharge. This will always be your home.'
He had only recently learned that the kindness she had shown was all an act.
Well, of course!
The child from another mother, whom they thought would die at twenty, had stubbornly survived even at twenty-nine.
A daughter of Kyushu Territory.
There were quite a few generals of Japanese descent within Army Headquarters.
She was closely tied to her maternal family, the Mitsui family.
She had been behind his assignment to the Seoraksan Forward Base.
Suddenly, his throat felt dry.
Taeju abruptly opened his eyes.
Before he knew it, dawn was breaking.
'I survived.'
It seemed he had lost consciousness while resisting the seven-spotted snake's poison with the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art.
He had thought he would die without question.
'Was the circulation continuing even unconsciously?'
Taeju slowly raised his right arm.
The head of the mutated seven-spotted snake hung limply from it and came up with his arm.
'The snake is dead.'
It was shriveled dry, as if all its vitality had been sucked away.
When he brushed it aside with his hand, it crumbled into powder and scattered.
Now that he thought about it.
'My arm is perfectly fine.'
Had it not been broken?
And not just his left arm.
After falling from the cliff and being coiled by the seven-spotted snake, his bones had practically been shattered to pieces.
'Don't tell me it's all healed?'
Taeju slowly pushed himself up.
His physical condition felt incomparably light.
Though the foul stench rising from his entire body was enough to numb his nose.
'At this rate, I feel much better than before I was injured.'
And then he felt it.
A small lump of energy gathered in his dantian, no bigger than a bean.
'Ah!'
Poison essence.
Though its size was small, its presence was unmistakable.
He had finally done it.
The mastery of the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art consisted of a total of ten stages.
As the realm rose, the poison essence would grow denser and larger.
Then what about the Poison Spirit?
That belonged to the realm of enlightenment.
Even after reaching the tenth stage, one might still fail to attain the realm of the Poison Spirit.
The tenth stage of the Primordial Boundless Poison Spirit Art was merely the default requirement for reaching the Poison Spirit.
He had only just taken his first step.
The realm of the first stage was merely at the level of a third-rate martial artist.
At least the fifth stage was necessary to possess peak martial prowess.
What should he do now.
The answer was already decided.
'First, I need to survive.'
There was someone trying to kill him.
Lieutenant Jang Indong?
He was nothing more than a subcontractor.
The one behind it was his stepmother, Honda Mitsui.
And.
'Father…'
It could not be him.
It must not be him.
His father could not have ordered his death.
He decided to believe in at least that minimum of human decency.
'Now that I've created poison essence.'
He needed martial arts to use it.
What would be best?
'Blood Seal Poison Pal must be mastered no matter what.'
It was the palm art the Supreme Poison Demon had mainly used in close combat.
Since it could emit and withdraw toxic energy, it was useful anytime and anywhere.
'As for hidden weapon techniques…'
It was better to learn just one and focus on it.
'One Flash of the Flying Falls, this one.'
And Phantom Maze Step.
A footwork technique that could maximize the effects of Blood Seal Poison Pal and One Flash of the Flying Falls.
In truth, the countless martial arts formulas that Dang Gun-ak had learned were all clearly engraved in his mind, but for now he would only train these three.
'Let's do this.'
No matter how perfectly he had inherited the Supreme Poison Demon's legacy, knowing something only in his head and mastering it with his body were worlds apart.
Taeju began with Phantom Maze Step.
As he stepped through the footwork, he executed Blood Seal Poison Pal.
Whirl!
Each time he thrust out his hand, a sharp poisonous fragrance spread from it, toxic energy being released and then gathered back in.
There were many trees here.
And their bark had been hardened by mana until it was as tough as iron plates.
It was the perfect place to test the power of Blood Seal Poison Pal.
His palm traced a circle.
Toxic energy extended from his dantian like a strand of thread and burst out through his palm.
Thud!
He struck the tree trunk just like that.
Five clear finger marks were carved into the bark.
'Not bad.'
When its full power was displayed, the moment the poison palm struck, the target would dry up, wither, and die.
Even so, for the first martial art he had displayed to have this much power. Of course, Dang Gun-ak's attainment must have acted like a kind of buff.
'Well, at least the toxic energy came out properly.'
Next was One Flash of the Flying Falls.
It had only two moves.
Flying Falls was wide-area, One Flash was single-target.
The hidden weapons used by the Supreme Poison Demon were all far from ordinary.
Butterfly-shaped hidden weapons used to deploy Blood Butterfly, thin needle-like darts with scales, Huigeum stones that looked like pebbles bristling with spikes like a hedgehog, and willow-leaf throwing knives.
Flying Falls also required special hidden weapons to be used.
At present, the only things resembling hidden weapons he could use were the military saber strapped to his ankle and a few five-hundred-won coins in his pocket, bearing the image of the Samhan Empire's divine beast, the three-headed white tiger.
'So only One Flash is possible.'
He needed more hidden weapons.
He would have to make time to craft some.
Of course, after surviving here first.
Tsshit!
The military saber shot out like a flash of lightning, leaving an afterimage behind.
Thunk!
It buried itself into the tree trunk up to the hilt.
His wrist throbbed.
The most important thing in executing One Flash.
The speed at which it flew was important, but it was just as important to eliminate the throwing motion as much as possible.
If he took a throwing stance by pulling back his shoulder, could that even be called a hidden weapon technique?
That would just be ordinary throwing.
One Flash used only the wrist.
The enemy would be struck without ever even realizing when the hidden weapon had flown at them.
'Now that I've tried each one once.'
He would raise his proficiency.
Pulling the military saber out of the tree and hiding it inside his sleeve,
Taeju moved his body.
Beginning with Phantom Maze Step, then executing Blood Seal Poison Pal, and when the saber naturally slipped out from inside his sleeve.
Tspirit!
Thud!
'Again.'
The linkage between each martial art was important.
Until his body completely mastered them.
'One more time!'