With each bastard, each time he pierced flesh, the hair on Hoho’s body stood on end.
Every time they spat words of resentment and poured out curses, Hoho felt as though he were being dragged down into the abyss.
However, he did not give up.
Until all of them bled and collapsed, Hoho swung his sword.
He stabbed and cut.
The emotion of his first killing was nausea.
It felt as though he might vomit up what he had eaten at any moment.
However, he pressed down everything rising in his throat and swallowed it back, watching the criminals’ end until the very last moment.
“Huuu......”
His breath trembled in short bursts.
His hands shook, and his eyes were bloodshot red.
However, he did not turn away from any of it.
His greatest strength, and his greatest talent.
It was that he did not avoid things.
A person who faced everything and ultimately seized victory.
That was Hoho.
Namgung Yeon patted him on the shoulder.
“You worked hard.”
“Thank...... you.”
“Do not forget the sensation you felt just now.”
“Will this sensation grow dull someday too?”
Hoho reflexively looked at Manho.
Manho silently nodded.
For those who carried swords, death was always like a death god following behind them.
Conversely, they could also call upon that death god themselves and take their enemy’s life.
There would be times when the weight called life felt truly fleeting.
However, if one was a martial artist, one had to know that weight well.
Only then could one live as a martial artist without becoming a monster.
‘Though I seem to have already become a monster.’
Namgung Yeon thought as he looked at those who had fallen.
How did they look to him?
Fallen straw bundles.
Or piles of bleeding garbage......
He did not want to spend long appreciating the final moments of people who looked like nothing more than that.
“Clean them up.”
“Yes.”
“It would be best to burn them in the backyard so there is no damage nearby.”
“We will obey your command.”
It was about time for his mother to arrive.
Should they not hurry and clean this up before she once again asked what in the world was going on inside the house?
However.
“My goodness, what in the world is the state of this house!?”
“......”
His mother’s nagging was still sharp.
There was something he smoothly held out to that mother.
“Oh my, what is this?”
“Mother, it is about time you began training again too.”
“......”
Namgung Soyeon.
She had taken on the Namgung Clan’s surname and lived as its lady, but the time had come for her to return to Tang Soyeon, her true essence.
One of the greatest talents of the Sichuan Tang Clan, and the woman once called the Poison Phoenix.
A woman who might perhaps have reached the poison-man state .
His father was not the only one who possessed a talent for the ages.
His mother, too, had inherited a talent that meant she did not have to lose her life in vain.
The pressure of this being the last time had forced him to make this decision.
Because if he failed here, there would be nothing left afterward.
‘A life where everyone becomes strong....... I know it will be difficult. But I have to protect them, even if this is the only way.’
This time, he would try everything he had wanted to do, everything he had planned, and everything he had saved.
Only then would there be some meaning in the wretched way he had lived, repeating his regressions over and over.
Soyeon looked at the thing her son had held out to her.
[Infinite Storehouse]
[Thousand Poisons Pill ]
[Quantity: 999,999,999]
[Current quantity available for withdrawal: 1]
An elixir made by refining a thousand kinds of poison.
The Tang Clan’s secret inheritance, and the legacy you left behind for me.
Now, I will return it to you.
In hopes of the birth of the Poison Queen .
“Are you truly giving this to your mother?”
“Yes. I want to live with you for the rest of my life, healthy and well.”
“You really are something......”
Somehow, to the limit.
They had to do everything they could.
***
Soyeon stayed for two days.
During that time, she could only marvel again and again.
She had heard faint rumors.
That a highborn lord of the Namgung Clan who had gone out was causing all sorts of incidents.
Within the clan, there were signs that people were displeased, but Namgung Mu seemed to be quietly expecting something to a certain extent.
However, seeing it in person, the amount of training was enormous.
And was that all?
Whatever art he had used, she could see her son’s physique improving day by day.
‘Even if one were born with exceptional bones and muscles, that much should be impossible......’
She fiddled with the wooden box containing the Thousand Poisons Pill and watched her son train.
She had hoped he would live peacefully within the household, but it seemed others did not think the same.
She, too, knew, as a child of a renowned murim clan.
That although murim clans looked lofty from the outside, their insides were filthy and ugly.
Those without blood or tears did not distinguish between siblings and family.
A murim clan was a place where even the clan head could be ambushed if he made a single wrong move.
“At that level, I don’t think I need to worry.”
He had been the finger that hurt the most.
A child who had always lain in bed coughing.
Perhaps...... the child who might be expelled before anyone else.
However, seeing this, it seemed she did not need to worry for the time being.
The problem would be his brothers and sisters, who had witnessed that child’s growth.
All of those children were Soyeon’s children, but at times, they felt alien to her.
Though they were children of a martial clan, each of them moved with their own goal.
Could Yeon truly make his way through those who were entirely wrapped in talent?
‘This mother still does not know.’
That was also why she had not taken the Thousand Poisons Pill right away.
Leaving aside how he had obtained it, its effects looked far too outstanding, so she could not easily bring herself to use it.
An elixir like this could exert power more effective than most medicines in an emergency.
Such was a mother’s heart.
To be so worried about her son that she could not use the elixir her son had given her as a gift.
‘Training again......’
When had she last held a dagger and made poison?
Ever since she met the man named Namgung Mu, training had been pushed far to the back.
Part of it had been because she was blinded by love, but it had also been because she wanted to support the man named Namgung Mu more perfectly.
And so she had lived as an ordinary homemaker, as the lady of the house who discussed the clan’s affairs both great and small, and as the mother of seven children.
Even if she relearned martial arts now, how far could she rise?
However, seeing that sight made her heart needlessly boil.
“Martial arts......”
For now, she would think about that later.
She had also checked on her son, so now it was time to hurry with the preparations in earnest.
Three months would pass quickly.
Countless people had gathered in Anhui, and she was also the lady of Anhui.
She carefully put away the wooden box containing the Thousand Poisons Pill and left the martial hall.
Because she had far too much to do, and could not afford to waste time.
Besides, if she stayed here too long, needless gossip was bound to arise.
“Your mother will be going now. Take good care of yourself.”
“I understand. And it would be best if you took that elixir soon.”
“......All right.”
“I can obtain as many things similar to it as you need.”
Namgung Yeon said that and saw his mother off.
She took it as the sort of thing he usually said and let it pass.
After all, with the Namgung Clan’s money, buying an elixir of this level was not difficult.
However, Namgung Yeon’s opinion was firm.
“That will have the greatest effect only if you take it, Mother.”
“I said I understand. I must go now. Come back safely, and take care of yourself.”
“Yes.”
It would have been good if she understood his intention.
Still, it was fine for now.
There was still a little time left.
But by the time she truly, desperately thought of the Thousand Poisons Pill, it would be too late.
‘Even that much is beyond what I can do.’
Senses that had grown far too dull.
Possibility that was far too desperate.
While those two emotions pulled against each other like a tug-of-war, the sun and moon shone over his head again and again.
***
Three months.
That time passed steadily.
Time was truly honest.
Perhaps because it flowed equally for everyone and presented its results transparently.
The same was true for Namgung Yeon.
For three months, he had done his utmost.
He had taken items out of the storehouse without sparing them, and trained with all his strength.
And today—today was the time when he had to return to the main clan estate.
“Let us go.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“A lot of rumors have spread in the meantime.”
Manho nodded.
Rumors had spread from the marketplace to every corner of downtown Hefei.
Those rumors said that Young Master Namgung Yeon had eradicated the criminals around Hefei.
And that he had returned innocent commoners to their families’ arms.
Because of that, the commoners searched for that person.
A righteous man whose identity they did not know.
When they looked for the one who had suddenly vanished without a trace, there were rumors coming from the slums.
Rumors the beggars carried around.
<Was his achievement martial force, leadership, or command ability?>
<Until now, there was never anyone who loved the poor.>
The songs hummed by the beggars spread little by little.
And so the people of Hefei gradually came to realize that the righteous man was Young Master Namgung Yeon.
As the saying went, words without feet travel a thousand li, and rumors had already spread widely throughout Hefei.
“I prepared a carriage so that we would not draw attention.”
“Well done.”
“And what should we do with these?”
Manho asked as he lifted the clinking Dragon-Suppressing Shackles.
Shackles whose weight could hardly be felt anymore.
At first, a strange light had shimmered around them, but now they had become nothing more than worn-out lumps of iron.
Namgung Yeon looked at them and spoke.
“Keep them on for now. You can take them off when I order it.”
“Understood. They no longer bother me much, so it is fine.”
“Hoho, what about you?”
Hoho, who had been packing luggage, turned his head.
His plump build had vanished without a trace, and standing there was a martial artist with a sturdy frame.
It was Hoho, who had trained while eating elixirs as though they were snacks.
The fat that had once sagged from him had turned into calories, allowing him to endure extreme training, and his originally outstanding talent had bloomed splendidly, like a fish meeting water.
As a result, Hoho had now changed enough to be called a martial artist.
He answered with a bright face.
“I have no problem either, Young Master.”
“Good. Let us depart.”
There had been an assignment given by his father, Namgung Mu, over those three months.
To build a realm equal to or above that of a first-rate martial artist.
How was he now?
In his father’s eyes, had the son named Namgung Yeon reached the level of first-rate?
They would know once they saw.
One thing was certain: there were many things he had to do in the Young Clan Head Competition.
A long time of training and competition would unfold.
During that time, many enemies and allies would appear.
‘In that process, Father and the elders will come to have faith in me.’
For that, he had taken out the items in the storehouse without restraint.
The Young Clan Head of the Namgung Clan.
That influence would echo beyond Hefei, across Anhui and the entire rivers and lakes.
To stop the disasters that were to come, he absolutely needed that position.
He opened the door of the martial hall and stepped outside.
Now it was time to show the results of those three months.
Familiar faces would appear.
Those he had seen so many times would bare their teeth at him.
‘This time, I won’t go easy on them.’
The pressure of this being the last time weighed down on Namgung Yeon’s shoulders.
A life where, if things went wrong once, there would never be another chance.
Therefore, he intended to use his full strength at all times.
Overwhelmingly, and decisively.