What rose from the floor was a dais.
On top of it sat a flat box covered in green cloth.
Seodaeryong and I both cried out at the sight of the dazzling object inside the box.
It was a night-luminous pearl. But it was different from all the night-luminous pearls we had collected so far. It was larger than even a supreme-grade night-luminous pearl, and its radiance was even more splendid.
“It’s the Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl!”
This was the finest night-luminous pearl, known as the king of all night-luminous pearls.
Upon seeing the object that had existed only in rumors, Seodaeryong opened his eyes wide in admiration.
“So it really did exist!”
Just then, a groan rose from the floor. Jisaeng’s eyes were bloodshot. He was on the verge of going mad from the shock. Even if he combined the value of every other night-luminous pearl, he could not buy this one. Not because it shone so brightly, but because there was only one in existence.
I calmly watched Jisaeng suffer.
His pain was still insufficient. He was paying for his crimes, but the people who had suffered at his hands had been struck by calamity in the midst of peaceful lives. If he had made hundreds, even thousands, of lives miserable, then he deserved to suffer at least this much.
For him, dying would have been a blessing, but even the phenomenon of a final rally had come upon him. He would have to endure the last pain of his life with a clear mind.
I carefully picked up the Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl.
“Right now, you must be holding the most expensive object in the world, measured by price. Please let me touch it just once. Ah, no. I might drop it. I’ll just look at it.”
At that moment, as I stared at its enchanting light, I tightened my grip.
Crack.
A long fracture split across the Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl.
It was enough to bring the dying Jisaeng springing to his feet. Jisaeng’s eyes flew open as though they might tear apart, while Seodaeryong screamed in his stead.
“Uaaaaaaagh!”
He would not have screamed like that even after being stabbed by a sword.
“You don’t have to touch it! Why are you doing this?”
I applied a little more force.
Craaaaaack.
The Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl began to crumble in my hand.
“Uaaaaaaagh!”
Seodaeryong screamed again. If Seodaeryong was reacting like this, what about Jisaeng? Tears were streaming from Jisaeng’s eyes.
Seodaeryong spoke in a trembling voice.
“I understand that you wish to inflict pain on that man, but how could you break an Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl?”
His voice trembled. His expression seemed to say, This really isn’t right.
“Take off your clothes!”
“You really do look insane when you act like this!”
Though he said that, Seodaeryong hurriedly took off his upper garment.
“Spread it out in front of me!”
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
Fragments of the night-luminous pearl fell onto Seodaeryong’s clothes.
I searched among the fragments for something.
There it is!
I picked up the object lying among the shards.
Black and lustrous like a black pearl, it was a single pill.
The Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill.
The Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill was the supreme elixir among poisons, created by blending every kind of deadly toxin.
“This Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl is a fake. It was made to conceal the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill.”
Before my regression, I had heard that the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill had been discovered inside an Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl. It had been found by chance when a fierce struggle for the pearl broke out among demonic-path martial artists.
I knew who possessed the real Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl, but even I had not known that this fake one had been kept in Jisaeng’s possession.
“It’s the safest way to hide something in the world. No one would have the courage to break this.”
Both Seodaeryong and Jisaeng looked utterly shocked. It must have been something they had never imagined.
“How did you know?”
I answered Seodaeryong’s astonished question as I always did.
“What is there that I do not know?”
As always, Seodaeryong shook his head and asked no further questions.
“If it were another elixir, I would share it with you, but no one except me can consume this. Only someone immune to all poisons can take it.”
The only person who knew that I was immune to all poisons was Seodaeryong.
“Even if I could take it, you should consume it, Sect Leader.”
Seodaeryong’s gaze turned toward the corpse of the fake Jisaeng.
“If I were threatened like that man, I would run straight to you and tell you everything. I’d beg you to save me. I’d tell you to take responsibility. To save me then, Sect Leader, you would have to become stronger.”
Even if it had been an ordinary elixir, Seodaeryong would probably have yielded it to me with words like those. They say I’m the kind of person who gives one and receives ten in return? What about you?
“You would never have obtained this elixir if not for you. Thank you, Investigator Seo.”
If I had not noticed Jisaeng gazing at the wall with regret in his eyes, this would have remained buried underground forever.
“Name that elixir the Right Arm’s Keen Eye.”
“I’ll add ‘with an especially keen eye’ to the description introducing you.”
“My introduction has become so long that I can’t memorize it anymore.”
Seodaeryong laughed happily. How could he dislike someone attaching so much meaning to who he was? In our lives, even gaining a single meaning was difficult.
“I’ll stand guard, so consume it at once, Sect Leader.”
I sat down cross-legged where I stood.
At the sight of this, Jisaeng let out another groan. He was suffering genuinely. He was enduring pain greater than having his flesh seared with heated iron, yet the heavens would not let him go easily.
I swallowed the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill.
I considered it fate that I had become immune to all poisons and obtained this miraculous poison pill here.
A force hotter and more intense than any elixir I had ever consumed before flowed down my throat. Its medicinal energy was so fierce that it felt as though my internal organs were burning away.
I regulated my body through circulating qi and began dissolving the energy of the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill. The energy raced through my blood vessels, spreading into every corner of my body, even the smallest meridians. It was an energy I could never have endured without the Meridian Tempering Art, which I had completed to its final stage, and my Poison-Immune Physique.
After dissolving all the energy of the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill and circulating my true qi through one full cycle, an incomparably vigorous and pure internal force was added to my dantian.
The fullness I felt in my dantian was different from when I had consumed other elixirs. It was not merely the feeling of, Ah, I have a great deal of internal force now. Rather, it felt as though I had climbed one step higher and reached the internal force of the next realm.
It was as though my internal force itself were saying this:
I am now ready to face a new world.
“Congratulations, Sect Leader.”
“I’ll say it again, but this is all thanks to you. Thank you, Right Arm.”
I felt wonderful. I had to become stronger. Only by becoming stronger could I protect everyone.
With my gaze clearer and deeper than before, I neatly folded the green cloth that had wrapped the Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl and tucked it into my breast. As would be revealed later, this too was an extremely important artifact.
Then Jisaeng, whom I had thought dead, suddenly opened his eyes. He had clung stubbornly to life, and he pleaded with desperate eyes.
He begged me to release his mute acupoint just once.
There were too many things he wanted to know, and too many things he wanted to say. But I was resolute.
“Have you ever once granted the requests of those who begged you?”
Regret and resentment rose to their peak, and then the light vanished from Jisaeng’s eyes. His lips moved one last time.
It’s all mine.
With those words, he died.
He might have realized the futility of greed and put his life in order during his final moments, but he never abandoned his greed, not even at the end. Even as he died, he shouldered all the night-luminous pearls and chewed down the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill before boarding the ferry to the underworld.
This is why. The orthodox path can never endure such vicious longing and the malice contained within it. Someone will be deceived by that desperate gaze and give him another chance. Because he pleads so earnestly, because he is facing death, because he is still human.
Evil does not grow on its own. It grows by devouring the goodwill of others. An absolute evil being is one who, even while dying, plants the seeds of malice in the heart of someone who showed him kindness before he departs this world.
In any case, all the villains connected to Fresh Immortal Village had now met their deaths.
“I don’t think I could do what you did, Sect Leader. I don’t know whether I could punish villains so decisively.”
“You shouldn’t act like me.”
“What do you mean?”
I stared straight into his eyes and said,
“You should act like yourself.”
A faint smile formed at the corners of Seodaeryong’s mouth.
“Yes. I’ll act like myself.”
Seodaeryong gathered the sack filled with night-luminous pearls, while I tucked the fake Jisaeng’s corpse under my arm.
Looking down at the real Jisaeng’s corpse, I said,
“Your death is only the beginning.”
Everything disappeared.
The villains’ lives, their greed, their shallow faith, their betrayals, their lingering attachments, the fortunes they had amassed over lifetimes—and even Seodaeryong and me. Everything that had been tangled together disappeared.
* * *
“With the Second Young Master being so outstanding, it seems we won’t be needed.”
At the Poison King’s words, the Extreme Evil Little Demon glanced back.
At first, speaking even a single word had been so difficult for the two of them, but once the conversation began, they started speaking with surprising ease.
“Wouldn’t you agree?”
Geom Mugeuk had taken only Seodaeryong with him, saying that he would handle the finishing work himself.
“Did you want to follow them?”
“Not necessarily.”
In truth, the Poison King had wanted to follow. He wanted to see how Geom Mugeuk handled things, but when the two left alone, he felt oddly disappointed.
“There will be plenty of things we need to step in for from now on. Yaryulhan in particular won’t be easy for the Second Young Master to face alone.”
Worry crossed the Extreme Evil Little Demon’s eyes. The Poison King also nodded in agreement. Even if he did not go outside, as a Demon Venerable, he still heard and saw many things.
“Yaryulhan could be called the most dangerous deadly poison among deadly poisons.”
The Extreme Evil Little Demon’s concern did not end with Yaryulhan.
“I’ve heard that, apart from the Four Great Guardians, there are absolute experts separately protecting Yaryulhan. Yaryulhan himself is strong, but those experts will not be people we can ignore either. When the time comes, we may have to risk our lives as well.”
Their opponent was the second-in-command of the Demonic Alliance. He would certainly have hidden blades, but how sharp they were—and how many there were—remained unknown.
The Poison King asked the Extreme Evil Little Demon,
“Can you really risk your life for the Second Young Master?”
The Extreme Evil Little Demon paused before answering.
“I enjoy fighting alongside the Second Young Master.”
The Poison King heard those words as meaning that he could risk his life for the Second Young Master.
The Poison King was envious. He had no one. No one whose life he could risk, and no one who would risk their life for him.
That was why these words came out for no particular reason.
“I only came out because I was ordered to by the Cult Leader, so I had no choice…”
The Extreme Evil Little Demon silently stared at the Poison King. His eyes asked: Is that really so?
The Poison King was about to say that it was, but then he fell into thought. Perhaps it was because of the Second Young Master’s mourning, the Second Young Master’s efforts, or the fact that he enjoyed meeting the Second Young Master.
Perhaps another reason had influenced him as well. He could not answer in the end.
“It’s hot today.”
For no reason, the Poison King opened his innocent fan and began waving it gently.
* * *
Geom Mugeuk and Seodaeryong returned to their quarters.
“I’ve wrapped things up nicely.”
Geom Mugeuk told the Demon Venerables everything that had happened there and everything they had obtained. There was no need to tell them, but he honestly revealed every detail without leaving anything out.
There was only one exception: he omitted the matter of the Ultimate Night-Luminous Pearl and the Myriad Poisons Ultimate Divine Pill. Explaining how he had known that the pill was inside the pearl would have been a problem, and it was not yet time to reveal his immunity to all poisons.
“We’ll leave early tomorrow morning.”
At my words, the Poison King asked,
“Who is the next target?”
“Aech'a, the man with the black snake tattoo. He is also the leader of the True Poison Hermit, whom you have been eager to meet.”
“I’ll finally meet that third-rate poison peddler.”
It was an insult only the Poison King could make. The True Poison Hermit was not an opponent to be taken lightly. He was a poison arts master who represented the demonic path.
Aech'a had joined hands with the True Poison Hermit and was selling drugs such as Gwangpok and Heukbi.
“Have you ever met the True Poison Hermit, Poison King?”
“No.”
The Poison King shook his head at my question.
“That’s fortunate. It would be difficult to approach him secretly if you knew his face. This time, I’ll need your help, Poison King.”
The Poison King nodded. He had decided to help enthusiastically in this matter, at least. He truly disliked the True Poison Hermit, who manufactured and sold drugs that caused side effects. Leaving everything else aside, this was a matter of a poison master’s pride.
“According to Military Advisor Go’s information, the True Poison Hermit is producing Gwangpok and Heukbi in the deepest part of Aech'a’s residence. Naturally, the place is guarded so thoroughly that infiltrating it is practically impossible.”
At that moment, Seodaeryong cautiously asked,
“But setting Gwangpok aside, is it all right to eliminate Aech'a as well? With Jisaeng dead, if Aech'a dies immediately afterward, Yaryulhan will become suspicious.”
“We must give him a death that cannot arouse suspicion. We’ll make him believe that the coincidences simply overlapped.”
“How?”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward me. I had been thinking of one method. I did not know whether it would work.
“Since this all began with Gwangpok, I intend to end it with Gwangpok.”