Return Of The Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 210

“That… that crazy old man dares to do such a thing!”

Tang Gunak quickly put his hand inside his sleeve. He gripped the hidden dagger so tightly that his shoulder moved as if it would break open. This showed how angry he was.

But Dang-oe just sneered.

“It is just a fair duel.”

“A fair duel that uses deadly poison! And a poison with no cure!”

Tang Gunak bit his lip hard.

It was too late.

Even if he jumped into the arena now, he couldn’t save Chung Myung. Tang Gunak would also be poisoned.

His vision blurred with rage, and he shouted, his voice strained and desperate.

“How can you call yourself an elder of the Dang family after doing this?! Using deadly poison with no cure in a duel against a disciple of the traditional martial arts groups, how are you different from the evil demons of the bad groups!”

Tang Gunak no longer called Dang-oe the Elder Council Leader. Dang-oe didn’t deserve that title anymore.

How could he respect someone who had abandoned the basic rules that the traditional martial arts groups should follow?

But Dang-oe just sneered at Tang Gunak’s angry shout.

“Haha, did you say demons of the evil groups?”

“I did!”

“Family Head, get a hold of yourself! It’s because of this that the Dang family hasn’t become the most powerful family!”

Dang-oe raised his hands, showing the power of poison.

“What is the Dang family’s position! We have poison and hidden weapons that could punish anyone, but we’re stuck in this corner of Sichuan, just pretending to be local leaders! How long must we follow these old rules!”

Dang-oe’s eyes shone with a strange light.

“Cheongseong? Emei? What a joke! If they really fought us, we could stain Cheongseong Mountain and Emei Mountain with blood in one day! But what are we doing? Surrounded by these mediocre fools, unable to do anything! Is this what you want for the Dang family, Family Head?”

“So? You would spread deadly poison to everyone without choosing? That would make the world our enemy!”

“Or maybe we would rule the world. Isn’t that right?”

The color drained from Tang Gunak’s face. He was about to lose his mind with anger.

Tang Gunak gritted his teeth and shouted angrily.

“What are you doing! Arrest that criminal and put him in prison!”

“Criminal? Who is the criminal!”

Dang-oe pointed at Tang Gunak and argued.

“The criminal is the Family Head who has weakened the Dang family! How much do you hate the Dang family that you would even think about joining with Mount Hua?”

“You….”

Dang-oe clicked his tongue and said.

“Family Head. The elders stepped down because we aren’t weak. Don’t forget that if you keep treating the Elder Council like this, we might change our minds.”

Tang Gunak’s fingernails dug into his palm.

He was trembling and couldn’t take his fist out of his sleeve. No matter how bad Dang-oe’s actions were, Dang-oe was an elder of the family. He couldn’t let everyone see him attacking Dang-oe.

Also….

Tang Gunak looked back at the family members and bit his lip, realizing his mistake.

They didn’t show it openly, but he could feel that they agreed with Dang-oe’s words.

Tang Gunak was sad.

‘It’s all my fault.’

He shouldn’t have given Dang-oe the chance to speak in front of so many people. He didn’t realize Dang-oe wanted power so much. Most of all, he shouldn’t have let Dang-oe and Chung Myung from Mount Hua fight. Those were all his mistakes.

He should have stopped it.

Instead of trying to interfere, he should have stopped the duel from happening. He should have prevented it from even starting.

He hesitated for a moment and trusted too much, and that had caused this terrible result.

“You….”

Just as Tang Gunak was about to take the dagger from his sleeve….

“Oh, oh! Over there!”

A gust of wind blew away the poisonous smoke that filled the arena. The people watching from a distance screamed and ran away.

“Hmm.”

Dang-oe used his energy to push the poisonous smoke into the sky. If any of his family members were poisoned, everything he had done would be ruined.

Dang-oe turned his head with a bitter smile toward the place where the poisonous smoke had cleared.

He would watch Chung Myung turn into a pile of blood and then offer his condolences….

“What, what is that?”

Dang-oe’s eyes widened like lanterns.

He didn’t see a completely melted corpse.

It was just Chung Myung.

“How….”

Although his clothes were stained with poison, Chung Myung’s body seemed normal.

But he didn’t seem to be in perfect condition, as he was shaking and grabbing the floor.

Soon.

“Uwaaaaargh!”

Chung Myung kept throwing up.

It was a ridiculous sight, but Dang-oe couldn’t laugh.

“Ugh! Uwaaaaargh!”

After throwing up a few times, Chung Myung wiped his mouth and struggled to stand up.

Dang-oe opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Poisoning….”

“Ugh. Did I eat too much?”

Chung Myung shook his head.

“To make me like this, it must be a Sichuan delicacy.”

“……”

Dang-oe stared at Chung Myung in disbelief.

Delicacy?

Not poison?

“……How?”

How could he not be poisoned?

Dang-oe couldn’t close his mouth.

Surely everyone had seen it?

He was hit by the Ghost King’s Order, covered in the Seven Treasure Soul-Reaping Powder, and finally hit by the Joyful Smoke.

Any one of those poisons could turn a person into a pile of blood.

Of course, a master with strong inner energy might be able to resist it or stop the poisoning to some extent. But there was no way that guy could be that strong!

“Ptooey!”

Chung Myung spat out a few times and then raised his head.

“First of all, I want to correct a few things.”

“…….”

“First, the reason why the Dang family can’t rule the world isn’t because they don’t use poison. It’s because the poison doesn’t work.”

“……What did you say?”

Chung Myung smirked.

Seeing Dang-oe’s reaction, he laughed.

‘It reminds me of old times.’

– But why aren’t you, a member of the Dang family, using poison?

– Oh, Brother. Have you ever heard of the Dang family producing the strongest person?

– No.

– Exactly. The Dang family is a respected family like the Namgung Clan. The Namgung family and the Peng family are good at producing the strongest person, but the Dang family isn’t.

– Is that because of poison?

– That’s right. Poison isn’t a good thing. If you use it a little, it’s like a master key. What is there to fear when you can just throw a few needles and make people fall down?

– But?

– Who would improve their hidden weapon skills if they win so easily? They think they are invincible if they just use the Dang family’s poison, so they become arrogant and their skills don’t improve. Then, when they meet a master like you, Brother, their heads fly off. Those idiots can’t understand no matter how much you tell them.

Tang Wae believed poison was the ultimate weapon. “Poison can defeat even masters!” he thought. “It can conquer the world!”

But Chung Myung scoffed in his mind. *Conquer the world with poison? If it were that easy,* he thought, *would the Tang Clan, famous for their poisons, have run away from the Heavenly Demon, a truly powerful enemy?*

It wasn’t just the Heavenly Demon. Chung Myung knew the Tang Clan had to run because they couldn’t even beat the strong fighters of the Demonic Sect. *If poison could really defeat anyone, why would the Demonic Sect have chased the Tang Clan away?* It didn’t make sense.

“A poison with no antidote?”

That just means there’s no antidote, not that you can’t remove the poison in other ways.

There are definitely ways to deal with poison. Chung Myung knows at least two.

“Joo, wouldn’t you have been unable to avoid being poisoned? Even if you hold your breath, the Ghost King’s Decree seeps through the skin. The same goes for other poisons!”

One way is what Tang Wae just said.

By using inner energy to completely block off the area around the body. If you don’t inhale the poison and don’t let it touch your skin, there’s no reason to be poisoned.

But this method doesn’t avoid the poison on hidden weapons. The moment even one hidden weapon pierces the body, the poison seeps inside.

The method used by absolute masters is to purify the poison that enters the body with inner energy. Masters who are the best at using inner energy can dissolve poison with their inner energy.

Antidotes aren’t necessary for them.

An antidote is just a medicine made so that those who aren’t masters can neutralize poison simply by taking it.

In the first place, what use would an antidote have for those who can withstand being poisoned?

That’s why the Tang Clan couldn’t become the greatest in the world, even with the weapon of poison.

‘Tang Bo knew this from the start.’

Tang Bo, who was seen as almost a lost cause in the Tang Clan, traveled the world and fought countless duels and life-or-death matches. Because of that, he realized that he couldn’t become the greatest in the world by relying on poison and risked everything on his hidden weapon techniques.

The Hidden Weapon Demon, Tang Bo, who attacked the world with his hidden weapon techniques, was born that way.

“Well, you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it in many ways, so let’s just say I have a unique body.”

“A, are you immune to all poisons?”

“You’re going too far.”

Chung Myung waved his hand.

“Continue with the second!”

Chung Myung frowned slightly.

“It’s not that the Tang Clan is forming an alliance with Mount Hua. Mount Hua is forming an alliance with the Tang Clan. This is an important issue, so please remember it.”

Just as Tang Wae was about to open his mouth with a dumbfounded expression, Chung Myung firmly cut him off.

“Lastly, the third.”

“…”

“The Tang Clan Lord has long seen through these points and tried to join hands with Mount Hua, but you people were clueless until the very end. The Tang Clan Lord must have had a hard time. Having to feed even a human like you as a member of the family.”

“Y-you!”

Chung Myung raised the sword in his hand.

“Now, let’s continue. Feel free to use any poison you want.”

“W-wait a moment. You shouldn’t be able to use your inner energy? You’ve already…”

Tang Wae, who had hurriedly opened his mouth, flinched for a moment and then closed it. In his panic, he had said something he shouldn’t have.

“Ah, that?”

Chung Myung chuckled.

“Do you know what a stupid person is like?”

“…”

“They think only they are smart. I already expected this kind of trickery would happen before the duel. The things people like you do are usually obvious.”

“You took an antidote in advance?”

“Ah, you’re really saying stupid things again and again. I told you, your poisons don’t work on me.”

Chung Myung chuckled.

“If you don’t believe me, try again.”

“I was planning to do that anyway!”

Again, the Ghost King’s Decree spewed out from Tang Wae’s sleeve. It was a thick, white smoke that smelled like rotten eggs and seemed to hang heavy in the air above the wooden platform.

The swirling smoke clouded Chung Myung’s surroundings in a hazy white. Instead of spreading out, it was now a more concentrated poison.

“I told you, it’s useless.”

Chung Myung swung his sword once, pushing away the Ghost King’s Decree that flew towards him.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he strode confidently towards Tang Wae.

Tang Wae stared at Chung Myung with an almost blank expression.

He had clearly seen the Ghost King’s Decree entering Chung Myung’s nose and mouth. Then he should have been poisoned, and by now his whole body should have been melting and burning away.

But Chung Myung was clearly not someone who had been poisoned.

“I’m sorry, but this is not enough. I told you, I have a unique body.”

It sounded absurd, but it was true.

The purest energy in the world was gathered inside Chung Myung’s body. And it was the energy of the Taoist lineage, a belief system focused on living in harmony with nature and finding inner peace.

The energy of Taoism is originally specialized in dispelling evil and purification. And no Taoist master in the world possessed purer energy than Chung Myung.

It was the energy that Chung Myung, who had seen the highest level of Taoist inner energy and started again from the beginning, could gather. Before that energy, poison was no problem at all.

‘I was going to take out even a pill of Hunyuan Dan if necessary, a special medicine that can restore your energy,’ he thought.

He had removed the poison more cleanly than he thought. He felt like patting the energy in his stomach.

Well… considering the trouble I went through to gather this, it should at least have this much power!

Chung Myung chuckled and said.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

At that moment, Tang Wae’s expression changed.

The face that had been distorted with embarrassment and fear until just now regained its composure in an instant.

“Hahaha. You don’t even know your own condition properly. Take a good look at your hands and then talk!”

“Huh?”

Chung Myung lowered his head, spread out his hands, and looked at them.

“Oh? What’s wrong with this?”

From his fingertips to his wrists, they were dyed black. This was, of course, a symptom of poisoning.

“I knew you were amazing. But it seems even the amazing you couldn’t completely drive out the poison energy.”

“Wow… what kind of poison is this?”

It managed to break through this. How strong must this poison be?

Tang Wae said with a triumphant expression.

“When you go to hell and meet King Yama, the judge of the dead in legends, tell him you came to hell as the price for underestimating the poison of the Tang Clan, a family famous for poisons from Sichuan.”

“You’re really impatient.”

“…What?”

Chung Myung chuckled.

“It seems there’s a limit to solving it on my own. But so what?”

“That poison can’t be removed…”

It was at that moment.

Fwoooosh!

Just as he heard the sound of something erupting, huge flames burst from Chung Myung’s hands.

At the same time, acrid smoke rose into the air on the flames.

“…”

Chung Myung stuck out his stomach.

“If I can’t remove it, I’ll just burn it away!”