〈 Episode 434 〉 Pass It On.
Dokjeolcheon (Poison Heaven), Dang Jemun.
One of the five heroes who stopped the Blood Demon’s Blood Tribulation.
One of the great figures who changed the Dang Clan—then treated as a demonic faction—into a righteous one, and later helped found the Martial Alliance.
A person I had heard about several times from Sin Noya’s own mouth.
According to him, this person was one of the crazy bastards.
‘…Not a guy, though. An old-timer.’
I examined the appearance of Dang Jemun with surprised eyes.
Hair so long it reached down to her waist.
A faintly lingering green hue in her hair—a beautiful pale green incomparable to Dang Soyeol or the Poison King.
Wondering where I had seen that hair color before.
‘It’s similar to the color of the lake.’
An illusion washed over me that it seemed to give off light.
Her eyes gave off a dreamlike impression, as if slightly lidded, and the pupils within glimmered with a jewel-like light.
At a glance, she looked somewhat similar to Dang Soyeol, yet she radiated a far more feminine and mature atmosphere.
Especially her chest….
‘…’
Though not to the extent of Namgung Bia’s, it was at a level that looked quite inconvenient for using martial arts.
Could that woman truly be Dang Jemun?
Could she not be Dang Jemun’s younger or older sister?
If not…
‘Was Dang Jemun really a woman?’
It wasn’t a strange tale that there were women among heroes, but no, how did a woman’s name end up….
As I looked at the one calling herself Dang Jemun with a bewildered expression, she… no, she approached me.
Shaaaaaah-!
Jeoksusa looked at her and expressed intense hostility.
Why is it acting like this again.
Seeing Jeoksusa like that, Dang Jemun tilted her head and spoke.
[How fascinating. To think you keep a spirit creature.]
“A spirit creature… you mean.”
It was something I felt I had heard somewhere before.
I couldn’t remember it well.
[Who on earth are you?]
“…”
[You’re clearly not Sin Cheol… yet I sense his energy.]
A bitter smile formed at Dang Jemun’s words.
Because hearing her, I felt I could understand a bit of the true nature of this place.
‘So this place too, then.’
An arrangement prepared for Noya.
The things that Buyeong had spoken of, and that Yeon Ilcheon had confirmed.
If the Poison Lake of the Dang Clan was also such an arrangement prepared for Sin Noya…
If Dang Jemun was here, then it was likely certain.
“I have… no, I share a bit of a connection with Daoist Sin Cheol.”
[Are you Sin Cheol’s successor?]
Successor.
With the Huashan Sect alive and well on Mount Hua, I wondered if I dared call myself his successor, but.
“Yes.”
I knew.
That if I hesitated here, Sin Noya would have plenty to say to me later.
After I raised him and changed his dirty diapers, he would surely give me an earful, asking if I was pretending not to know.
“I am his successor.”
So I did not hesitate any longer.
[…]
Dang Jemun’s expression darkened slightly at my answer.
Why? Why was she making such an expression?
[…Then Sin Cheol ultimately failed to survive, I see.]
“Ah.”
Was it regret over that?
Whenever I had met past heroes until now, they had all regretted or despaired over this.
That Sin Noya had failed to survive.
This meant it was an important matter to them.
[There’s something I wish to ask the successor.]
“You believe that I am his successor?”
Her calling me successor without hesitation made me more flustered instead.
At my words, Dang Jemun looked at me with a puzzled expression.
[Are you not?]
“No… I am, but… well.”
Swish.
While I hesitated, Dang Jemun approached until she was right before me in an instant and pointed at my chest with her finger.
[You are ominous.]
“…”
I swallowed dryly at her sudden words.
Moreover, a cold energy brushed past my neck.
I remembered having heard similar words from Yeon Ilcheon in the secret chamber of the Divine Dragon Hall in the past.
– You are a calamity.
He had certainly said that to me.
Coming to this point, I had harbored an anxious feeling, wondering inwardly if it might truly be so.
[I sense far too many unknown presences, and your unstable form is overwhelming to behold in many ways.]
“…”
[But.]
Dang Jemun’s fingertip drew closer and then poked my chest.
I couldn’t feel it actually touching.
[Within this, I sense Sin Cheol.]
“…!”
[That is enough for me. You are indeed his successor.]
“I might have obtained this… through wicked means, might I not?”
[Had you done so, he would have been angry. Because Sin Cheol is that kind of person.]
It was an exceedingly firm belief.
I looked into her eyes.
In her clear green pupils, an especially deep emotion could be felt.
That emotion was so firm and dense that even I could tell how Dang Jemun had viewed Sin Noya.
‘This old geezer, saying he’d never even been in love…’
After acting so stubborn and cranky toward me, this was something I couldn’t fathom.
Just let him wake up. I’ll take it up with him one by one.
While thinking that, Dang Jemun called out to me again.
[Successor.]
“Yes, Senior.”
[…Have you ever seen Sin Cheol?]
“…”
Her tone was somehow cautious.
I could tell that anxiety and anticipation were mixed in her words.
“I have seen him.”
Joy flashed in Dang Jemun’s eyes.
“…And I am still with him now.”
[Wh… at?]
Dang Jemun wore the brightest expression I had seen from her until now, and seeing that, I had to feel an indescribable guilt.
‘Doesn’t he wake up even at a time like this?’
I resented Sin Noya.
When I met Yeon Ilcheon last time, he had woken up for at least a moment.
Why was he keeping silent now?
Looking at Dang Jemun swelling with anticipation, I let out a sigh and briefly explained the past—the time when I had met Sin Noya.
[…]
After the explanation ended.
Only regret remained at the corners of Dang Jemun’s eyes.
When she heard that I had absorbed Sin Noya along with the energy of a ghost artifact and had been traveling with him for several years as a result.
She had seemed elated at the fact that Sin Noya existed, but.
At the fact that he was now asleep and hadn’t woken for nearly a year, Dang Jemun appeared greatly disappointed.
[So that was why the successor wasn’t surprised to see me… I see.]
“…Yes.”
Having met so many, by now I could roughly guess.
‘The only surprising thing was that Dang Jemun was a woman.’
I had never imagined she would be such a delicate, slender figure at that.
Dang Jemun’s eyes still looked half-dead with disappointment.
I thought it might be best to leave her be for now, but.
I had no time, so I had to ask what needed asking first.
“The Golden Iron Fist King called me a calamity.”
My words caused a strange light to flash in Dang Jemun’s eyes.
[Do you mean Yeon Ilcheon?]
‘Huh.’
Though I might be imagining it, a faint hostility seemed to flash in Dang Jemun’s eyes at the mention of Yeon Ilcheon.
“Yes, he called me a calamity.”
And I nearly died.
Just thinking back to it made me dizzy.
If not for Sin Noya’s intervention, I might truly have died.
“Do you, Senior, perhaps think the same?”
I had agonized quite a bit to ask this.
Because if Dang Jemun tried to kill me as Yeon Ilcheon had, it would be troublesome.
The reason I asked regardless was that I believed in the feelings she held for Sin Noya.
Thinking that if I were his successor, she would at least spare me.
To this question, Dang Jemun spoke thus.
[What did Sin Cheol say about that?]
She asked how Sin Cheol had answered.
The words Sin Noya had said to me then….
Certainly.
“…He told me not to believe the words of others, but to believe in myself.”
That’s what he said.
Saying how a martial artist who couldn’t believe in himself could accomplish anything.
Hearing those words conveyed, Dang Jemun wore a faint, blurry smile.
[That’s so like Sin Cheol.]
She seemed pleased with the answer.
[You’re right… If it were him, he would certainly have answered that way.]
“How does Senior see it?”
[Well.]
Sin Noya’s answer had been as such, but I was asking for Dang Jemun’s answer.
Regarding the question, Dang Jemun took on a rather cold gaze and looked at me.
And spoke.
[If it were me, I would probably have given the same answer as Yeon Ilcheon.]
“…!”
I flinched involuntarily at the cold energy contained in her voice.
She was clearly a ‘lingering will (死念).’ How could both Yeon Ilcheon and Dang Jemun possess such an aura?
The moment I tried to look around in case something happened.
[But…]
Dang Jemun immediately erased the coldness and continued.
[If Sin Cheol said so, then that must be right.]
Her words brought relief, yet also a mix of emotions.
Sin Noya was contained in every word she spoke.
How much emotion had to be contained for her to be like that?
“You must have trusted Noya greatly.”
[…]
No answer came to these words.
Dang Jemun simply quietly watched my chest.
Those eyes looked as if searching for Sin Noya.
“Senior…?”
Hearing my call, Dang Jemun turned and headed somewhere.
It had been darkness where Dang Jemun appeared, but before I knew it, all that darkness had cleared and a small pedestal could be seen.
‘That’s…’
A stone lump about the size of a fist situated on the pedestal caught my eye.
A stone of pure white radiating a faint light.
My eyes widened seeing it.
‘White Demon Stone (白魔石).’
The White Demon Stone that a White-grade demon beast would possess.
The thing I had so desperately wanted to obtain was right there.
[Successor, you likely know as well, but I am the lingering will left behind by Dang Jemun.]
While my eyes were captivated by the demon stone, Dang Jemun slowly continued.
[I am one of the arrangements prepared for Sin Cheol… and the lingering attachment and regret left behind for him. That is me.]
“Attachment… and regret.”
Hearing those words, an inexplicable doubt flashed through my mind.
Setting aside the attachment and regret.
I understood that this place was a secret chamber prepared by Dang Jemun, but.
‘Why had she prepared a White Demon Stone?’
A demon stone was of little use to an ordinary person.
No matter how much energy it contained.
It wasn’t something one could absorb like a spirit pill or an inner pill, so preparing a White Demon Stone for Sin Noya was a somewhat strange thing.
I tried to ask Dang Jemun about that.
But she called out to me first.
[Successor.]
“Yes.”
[To obtain this Dokcheondan (毒天團), you must pass a trial.]
“Huh?”
[This too was prepared for Sin Cheol, but… if you are his successor…]
“W-wait a moment.”
[What is it?]
I thought I had misheard something that just came out of Dang Jemun’s mouth.
“…Did you say Dokcheondan?”
She had clearly said that. Dokcheondan.
At my question, Dang Jemun tilted her head.
[Yes. Did you not know?]
Dang Jemun pointed somewhere with her fingertip. I turned my head.
When my gaze shifted, only then did it enter my sight.
There was a bowl beside the White Demon Stone, and atop it, round inner pills were stacked.
…Why am I only seeing that now?
‘Could it be that all of that…’
Did she mean Dokcheondan?
Gulp….
I involuntarily gulped.
What is Dokcheondan?
It is precisely the divine pill of the Dang Clan, said to have had its recipe lost so that it can no longer be made.
The thing said to surpass the Great Return Pill of Shaolin, now famed as the most renowned in the Central Plains….
‘Was stacked up like that…?’
Not just one, but easily more than ten.
Perhaps because my reaction was strange, Dang Jemun asked.
[Could it be that the successor doesn’t need inner pills…?]
“No. I absolutely need them. I came here for that.”
[I see.]
At my answer without hesitation, Dang Jemun nodded as if she had expected as much.
Right, I came all the way here to get that.
I had to obtain it somehow.
White Demon Stone? What was that?
Is it edible?
“I will take the trial right now.”
I had come risking my life to obtain the Dokcheondan.
I wasn’t afraid of any trial.
Shaaaah….
The tactless Jeoksusa looked at me and hissed, but I glared at it once and stuffed it into my sleeve.