Chapter 11 – Sichuan’s Tang Family (1)
Tang Cheol-san and the warriors quickly took refuge in the cave, but not everyone was safe.
A warrior of the Tang family, who had approached the Zhen Bird and thrown a stone at it, inevitably fell behind.
When being dragged into the cave by Tang Cheol-san, he saw the realgar in his hand had shrunk to the size of a grain, and then, regaining his senses, he hurriedly followed us.
He managed to save his life, but his clothes had completely disintegrated.
To expel the invading poison, he had to struggle for a long time.
According to Tang Cheol-san, he was lucky to be alive, thanks to mastering the Tang family’s poison arts.
It seemed that our realgar energy had flowed to him, fortuitously saving his life.
Even we, who had safely taken shelter in the cave, could not be at ease.
Despite moving to the far end of the cave, wisps of white smoke from the realgar continued to rise from the Tang family members.
Though it wasn’t erupting wildly like dry ice thrown into water, the continuous smoke from the realgar meant there was still poison.
If the realgar completely dissolved, we would be poisoned too.
“Z, Zhen Bird! Family Head, are you sure it’s the Zhen Bird!?”
An elder, apparently a deputy leader, asked in disbelief.
Then Tang Cheol-san recited a passage as if from a book.
“When its wings are spread, they measure five feet. The beak is copper-colored and sharp, and the body is covered with purple-red feathers. When it becomes enraged and spreads its wings, everything around it darkens and dies, turning into poison. With a golden crown on its head, it truly has the demeanor of an emperor.
This is called Zhen or Zhen Bird.
This is all I know.”
His description matched exactly with what I had seen.
I asked Tang Cheol-san with a trembling voice.
“Is, is that one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures?”
He slowly nodded his head.
An unbelievable statement came from his mouth.
“That is the Zhen Bird, which ranks at the very top of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures and is known as the king of all poisonous creatures.”
“The emperor of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures!”
‘Insane! Amazing!’
My impression of encountering the Zhen Bird was simply one word.
Amazing.
What I had known as venomous insects and snakes in my past life seemed cute compared to this, a walking disaster.
It was like a biochemical weapon, making every pore on my body contract.
The scene of corpses and venomous insects and snakes melting replayed endlessly in my mind.
An immense poison that erases vast areas like an eraser.
“A Zhen Bird in Haenam Island… It’s known to feed only on the heads of venomous snakes, so it must have been drawn here by snakes harboring venom.”
I regained my senses and asked Tang Cheol-san.
“Is, is it common?”
“Hardly, otherwise all people of the Central Plains would not survive. It’s not easy to see a Zhen Bird in one’s lifetime. Even I have only read about it in books, this is my first time seeing it. It’s so rare that there are only stories of it being sighted once every hundred or two hundred years.”
Certainly, as Tang Cheol-san said, if such a creature roamed around, people would die in droves.
I stared blankly at the cave entrance and said.
“But can we possibly catch it…?”
It wasn’t really a question, more like a thought blurted out.
The idea of capturing the king of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures was tempting, but it seemed impossible to even get close to it.
Then Tang Cheol-san smiled.
“Do you want to try catching it? Young Hero?”
To me, who died trying to capture the Ten Great Venomous Snakes, the Ten Great Venomous Creatures were a kind of romance and goal.
I responded in a dazed voice, looking at the cave entrance.
“Yes. But with such potent poison…”
It seemed like I’d melt away just trying to catch it.
Then, in a slightly mischievous tone, Tang Cheol-san spoke.
“You seem very interested in the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, just as you were before. Well, there is a way.”
My eyes widened at the mention of a method, and I asked eagerly.
“There’s a way?”
“Of course. Our Tang family once captured it three hundred years ago.”
The response was that they had once caught the Zhen Bird.
Three hundred years ago seemed like a distant past, but the fact that Tang Cheol-san had mentioned an experience of catching a Zhen Bird once sparked my interest.
It meant they had experience and records about the Zhen Bird.
“Really?”
Incredulous, I asked again, and Tang Cheol-san simply smiled in response.
He looked towards the cave entrance and spoke as if to himself.
“If one masters the Tang family’s poison arts, one becomes impervious to all poisons, even the Zhen Bird’s. Our Tang family’s martial arts are ‘uniquely’ capable of blocking poison in this world…
But what to do…
We can’t teach our martial arts to someone who isn’t part of our family… That’s the rule of our clan… Ha ha. Alas, I’d like to help you, young hero, but the rules…”
Indeed, if it were possible to block such a bird’s poison with martial arts, it would be a secret and a special technique reserved for family members.
I cautiously confirmed.
“If I become a family member, can I learn it?”
I asked again because it seemed like something extraordinary taught only to key family members.
After all, not all family members are equal. What if they say they can’t teach me because I’m just an insignificant member?
So I had to make sure.
Tang Cheol-san smiled again at my question.
“If you decide now, I’ll teach you generously. Of course. And I’ll take good care of my gift to you. But if you take too long to decide…”
‘Has the elder reincarnated like me? His comments sound like mobile game push notifications.’
Tang Cheol-san, who would have been a great businessman if he had been born in my previous life, seemed to know that I was contemplating his offer to join the Tang family.
He tempted me with what sounded like a final offer, as if the benefits would disappear if not accepted now.
‘From what I’ve seen of the elder, he doesn’t seem like someone who would lie about this… Yeah, how long will I live alone in the forest? I can pursue my hobbies later…’
I was starting to miss human company.
Hobbies are great, but this seemed like a good opportunity, and I felt I should seize it.
After all, my life has been driven by following my dreams.
‘Wait for me, Zhen Bird.’
I answered Tang Cheol-san’s proposal with a firm voice.
With the spirit fitting for a first greeting.
After all, I had learned that this is how new recruits should introduce themselves.
“Okay! I will do it! A member of the Tang family! I look forward to it. Sir. No, Family Head!”
“Really!? Hahaha. Alright then! Now you’re ‘forever’ part of our family!”
The elder’s joyful laughter echoed through the cave, then turned somber as we remembered we still had to find a way out.
***
It took us a day to finally emerge from the cave.
The reaction from the realgar, which had been emitting faint smoke, had finally stopped.
It was a situation where just a couple of hours more and the realgar would have completely run out.
“What, what is this?”
“My God.”
“The bodies of people…”
What we faced outside the cave was a blackened land.
An area of about twenty to thirty meters around where the piles of bodies had been was now just a land of black soil.
Not a single blade of grass or insect could be found.
The lush grass, the trees, and the heaps of bodies were all gone.
Only black soil and black rocks were visible.
It was as if the scenes from yesterday had vanished like a dream, leaving only the site in front of us.
“But can we step on this soil?”
“As we were coming out, I scattered the remaining realgar, and surprisingly, all the poison had disappeared.”
The land had been tainted with poison, and we wondered if we might be poisoned, but the elder had confirmed that all the poison had dissipated.
Perhaps it was volatile, but the poison had completely vanished.
Now that safety was confirmed, it was time to pray for the souls of the victims.
The warriors of the Tang family searched the halfway-up-the-mountain house, found an old bottle of liquor, and used it to offer a brief prayer for the victims.
“May they attain ultimate bliss and rebirth in paradise…”
After praying for the victims, I asked the Family Head.
“So, are we heading to Sichuan now?”
“It seems so.”
“First, I need to stop by the Taoist temple to release my friends. I can’t bring them to the Tang estate.”
“Understood. Let’s head to the Taoist temple first. You must also gather your belongings.”
“Let’s go.”
“Right.”
The secret manual of Blood Water Poisonous Claws was retrieved yesterday and was now in the possession of the Family Head.
I thought it would be destroyed as it seemed dangerous, but the Tang family, prioritizing practicality, decided to take it back to the family to extract whatever useful information they could from it.
Even from something as malevolent as evil cultivation techniques, they believed there were lessons to be learned.
It felt like looting drop items after killing Tak Wun-yang, but now that we are family, whatever is collected could be of some help to me.
Thinking about the practicality of the situation, I was about to mount the Family Head’s back to head to the abandoned Taoist temple, when something sparkling in the middle of the blackened earth caught my eye. Pointing to it, I said to the Family Head.
“There’s something over there.”
“Huh? What is that?”
What we found in the middle of the blackened earth, sparkling, was a peculiar feather. It was primarily purple but shimmered with a dark red hue under the light.
A single feather lay on the ground.
How could I forget this color?
It was undoubtedly a feather of the Zhen Bird.
“This, this is!?”
“A feather of the Zhen Bird!”
I wanted to touch it, but fearing it might be poisonous, I refrained. The Family Head then took out gloves from his possession, carefully picked up the Zhen Bird’s feather, and placed it into a container, saying,
“I will have this checked at the main house and then give it to you. It seems you are quite interested in it. Let’s call it the first gift for becoming part of our family.”
“Thank you, sir. No, Family Head!”
Along with the leg of the Blue-Spotted Centipede, this would become my second treasure.
As I thought about making it into a pendant or something to wear around my waist, I heard the Family Head’s somewhat dissatisfied voice.
“All’s good, but I’m not fond of your address. But let’s change the formality after the ceremony?”
‘A ceremony?’
It seemed there was some sort of initiation ceremony to become a family member, and I hoped it would be as simple as possible.
***
In the past few months, the entrance to Sichuan Tang Family, which had been like a house of mourning, was lively once more.
Tang Hwa-eun, the only daughter of the Tang family’s patriarch.
Her grandfather, Man of Ten Thousand Poisons Tang Mu-seong, who had gone to find medicine to save her, had just arrived at the entrance of Sichuan Tang Family.
However, his appearance was far from good.
The emaciated face of the Tang family’s top expert.
He must have hastened his journey, using light body techniques to the limits of his internal energy.
“Oh, elder!”
“Hwa, how is Hwa-eun!?”
The Man of Ten Thousand Poisons’ first concern was for his granddaughter.
Normally, a lower-ranked warrior of the Tang family wouldn’t dare to, but, worried about the lady, he asked with a trembling voice.
“Sh, she is still holding on to life! The medicine? Did, did you get it?”
The lower-ranked warrior asked, and the other warriors, who were standing guard with him, just stared at the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons’ mouth.
The Man of Ten Thousand Poisons’ mouth opened with a smile, and he gave the eagerly awaited answer.
“I have acquired the Inner Core of the Blue-Spotted Centipede.”
“““Wowwww!”””
The warriors of the Tang family cheered at the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons’ response.
Immediately, their cheers spread throughout the Sichuan Tang Family compound.
Following their cheers, from the deepest part of the Tang estate, where the main family’s residences were clustered, a middle-aged woman swiftly emerged, using light body techniques.
“What’s all this commotion about!? Oh, Father!?”
The woman, who ran out upon hearing the warriors’ cheers and then shouted in surprise upon seeing the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, was Leng Su-lian, the mistress of the Tang family, known for her tears that were said to be as poisonous as venom.
“Let’s go, daughter-in-law. I have obtained the Inner Core of the Blue-Spotted Centipede.”
“Yo, you’ve succeeded! Sob!”
Leng Su-lian burst into tears at the news.
The two of them immediately headed to the chamber where Hwa-eun was resting.
Upon entering, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons was confronted with the sight of his granddaughter, Tang Hwa-eun, whose entire body was alarmingly discolored.
Around her, the elders of the Tang family were sweating profusely, pouring their internal energy into her, but they brightened upon seeing the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons.
“Elder!”
“You’ve returned!”
Rather than responding to their greetings, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons first examined his granddaughter.
Tang Hwa-eun’s condition was visibly dire, even worse than he had anticipated, with her barely breathing and deeply poisoned.
“It was almost a disaster. Good thing I hurried.”
“Hurry, please.”
The Man of Ten Thousand Poisons quickly took out a silk pouch from his robe, from which he extracted a walnut-sized green pearl.
He gently placed the pearl into the mouth of his motionless granddaughter and began guiding his internal energy into her.
Despite being weary from continuously using light body techniques to reach this place, he was determined to rescue his granddaughter from her pain.
And after a while…
-Sigh…
A sigh escaped from the granddaughter’s lips.
Soon after, her discolored skin began to return to its original, ivory-like color.
It was a miraculous revival, made possible by the Inner Core that he wouldn’t have been able to obtain if he hadn’t met the mysterious young hero.
***
If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.
Thank you for reading!
[Author – 에르훗]
[Translator – Roshi]