The tip of my tongue tingled.
It was partly because the poison was potent, but perhaps because I had reached the stage of Myriad Poison Immunity—the senses with which I detected poison had grown more sensitive.
‘Hmm.’
I swallowed what I had been holding in my mouth, then took another sip.
I rolled it around in my mouth several times, as though savoring it.
It was certainly not because it tasted good.
‘What kind of poison is this?’
What was it meant for?
That was what I wanted to determine first.
Immediately after swallowing the tea, I checked my condition for a moment.
The poison would be broken down and disappear soon enough anyway, but a fleeting trace would remain. I needed to examine it during that instant.
Ssssss.
The poison I had swallowed slowly began to spread, only to vanish almost at once.
I felt it and nodded.
I had figured it out.
‘Silver-Heat Herb.’
The poison mixed into the plum tea was likely the poison of the Silver-Heat Herb (隱熱草).
Perhaps because I had recognized it at once, a faint sense of pride rose within me.
‘Studying has paid off.’
The past few years.
From time to time, with Tang Soyeol’s help or the assistance of the Tang Clan, I had studied poisons.
Thanks to having reached the stage of Myriad Poison Immunity, it hardly mattered whether I knew about poisons or not. Perhaps for that very reason, I had tried even harder to memorize them.
‘Being immune to poison means it’s even more useful when I use poison myself.’
They said the Heavenly Demon of my previous life had never stooped to poisoning anyone.
But I was not her.
‘If I can use something, I have to use it all.’
Poison or anything else—if it could be used, I would use it.
To do that, I had to study in my own way.
And thanks to that, I could immediately identify what kind of poison it was.
The Silver-Heat Herb (隱熱草) was a poisonous plant that grew only in shaded places during hot weather, like summer.
Its characteristic was…
‘It interferes with the flow of inner energy.’
It was not a permanent poison, but after consuming it, there was a risk of problems for several days.
“Hmm.”
In terms of potency, a person without resistance would have roughly thirty percent of their strength bound up.
It had almost no taste, and although it gave off a sharp vinegar-like smell, that too had been concealed by the scent of plums.
That meant—
‘It was mixed extremely well.’
Whoever had prepared it had taken considerable care.
Gulp.
Immediately after finishing the rest of the plum tea, I casually threw the teacup.
Clack! Rumble!
I tilted my head as I watched the cup fall and roll away.
‘They weren’t trying to kill me, at least… So what was the purpose?’
If they had intended to kill me, there were plenty of stronger poisons they could have used.
Even if my high cultivation made it difficult for poison to affect me, there were more than enough poisons capable of killing a martial artist.
At least if I did not possess Myriad Poison Immunity.
“That’s what makes it even more suspicious.”
Crack.
I loosened my neck and moved slightly.
At that moment—
“Ugh… Huuu… Hic…”
The person in front of me began to sob and burst into tears.
It was a woman who looked utterly terrified.
I slowly bent down to meet her gaze.
Then I asked,
“Hey.”
Flinch!
The woman’s body jolted violently at my voice.
“What was your name again?”
“…Bae… Bae… I am called… Baekyeon…”
Right, Baekyeon.
That was correct. That was her name.
“Yes, that’s right. Attendant Baek.”
“Y-Yes… Yes… Young Master…”
I smiled faintly as I looked at Baekyeon trembling before me, then spoke.
“There was poison in this tea. In the tea Attendant Baek brought me.”
I extended a hand, and the teacup lying on the floor flew into it with a sharp catch.
“Did you know?”
“I-I did not… I truly did not know…”
She was frantic and desperate.
The woman was denying everything, trying to escape the danger somehow.
Watching her, I tightened my grip around the cup in my hand.
Crack!
“Eek!”
The cup split in half, and Baekyeon trembled violently at the sight.
Then I saw her lower garments grow damp. It seemed she had wet herself.
“Yes, you wouldn’t have known. You couldn’t have known.”
I watched her shake and slowly straightened up.
Though her appearance was somewhat pitiful, the coldness in my eyes did not disappear.
That was only natural.
“You may not have known there was poison in it… But you probably did receive an order to deliver the tea, didn’t you?”
“…!”
At my question, Baekyeon’s pupils wavered.
“T-That…”
“Otherwise, the situation wouldn’t make sense. Attendant Baek.”
She had appeared at dawn and suddenly brought me tea.
And not just any tea—tea for the Plum Blossom Immortal, using Madam Mi as an excuse.
There were far too many strange points.
Yes, it was obviously suspicious.
That was why I had let the attendant into my room.
Precisely because it was so strange, I wanted to see what she was trying to do.
“I was wrong…! Please forgive me, Young Master!”
At my words, Baekyeon dropped to her knees and prostrated herself.
“I truly didn’t know… They said they would pay me a large sum just for delivering the tea…”
As expected.
“How much?”
“Pardon?”
“How much did they say they’d give you?”
Baekyeon stated the amount.
It was slightly less than what the Gu Family paid its attendants every six months.
For her, it must have been a considerable sum.
“I truly… didn’t know there was poison—!”
She desperately clung to my leg and cried out, so I questioned her in that position.
“But you must have suspected it.”
“…!”
At my words, Baekyeon’s body stiffened.
“Bring tea first thing in the morning. Isn’t that strange enough on its own? After hearing that, you must have imagined at least once what might be in the tea.”
“…Young Master…”
“What if there’s poison in it? There might be poison. Someone could die after drinking it. You must have thought things like that.”
Tap.
I pulled my leg away and knocked Baekyeon’s hands aside.
“You thought about it. You definitely thought about it at least once. But you did it anyway. How is that different from knowingly doing it?”
“P-Please spare me…! I… I never meant it that way…! I have an elderly mother living alone in my hometown, and a younger brother who’s still just a child…! Because of them—!”
“An elderly mother and a younger brother. I see.”
“Pardon…?”
The instant Baekyeon expressed her confusion—
Thwack.
“Gurk.”
I fired qi into Baekyeon’s throat, killing her instantly.
As Baekyeon collapsed limply, I stroked my chin.
“She really wasn’t a martial artist.”
She had been an ordinary person, without the slightest trace of energy.
I wore a bored expression at the realization and murmured,
“Clear this away.”
[Yes.]
At my words, someone appeared, opened the door to my quarters, and carried away Baekyeon’s corpse.
It was one of the Dark King’s subordinates.
Since Nahee had been assigned a mission, another person had been stationed here in her place.
Just as that person was removing Baekyeon, he suddenly addressed me.
“Young Master.”
“Yes?”
“Since there has been an assassination attempt, would it not be best to strengthen your guard?”
At that, I waved my hand dismissively.
“No need.”
“However…”
Normally, even an attendant of the Gu Family would not be allowed to enter my quarters without permission.
Since this was foreign territory, it was precisely the time when our defenses should have been tightened to the extreme.
However—
“I deliberately left the defenses loose, so this is actually for the best.”
I had intentionally lowered my guard, almost as if welcoming them to try.
‘It’s easier to figure things out if they come at me like this.’
It made it easier to determine where they were watching me from after sending assassins.
It also made it easier to gauge the timing.
Besides—
‘In any case, I control the greatest assassin corps in the Central Plains.’
The assassin corps once possessed by the Dark King followed my orders.
Even if another assassin moved, it would hardly pose much of a threat.
“Then I will prepare personnel and trace the one behind the poison…”
“Please handle it as quietly as possible.”
“Understood.”
According to Baekyeon, the person who hired her had covered their entire face with black cloth, making them impossible to identify.
Judging from the level of care taken in preparing the tea, they probably had not left behind many traces either.
‘Who was it?’
Who could have done such a thing?
That was what I needed to consider now.
First of all, it was true that the plum tea had been given by the Plum Blossom Immortal.
But it was not the Plum Blossom Immortal or the Mount Hua Sect.
‘They have no motive to do something like this to me.’
Nor were they the sort to prepare something so blatantly.
Then who was it?
‘The Alliance?’
The Martial Alliance.
They were a plausible suspect.
They were also a group with the power to do something like this.
However—
‘It’s too clumsy for the Martial Alliance.’
If it had been them, they would not have resorted to such a method.
Rather—
‘It would be more accurate to say they deliberately made it look clumsy.’
It was possible they had never even expected Baekyeon to succeed.
I gave that possibility more thought.
‘There’s almost no chance they would send an attendant to poison my tea at dawn.’
It was strange to think they believed something like that would work.
‘This was a test.’
They wanted to see how guarded I was. If it succeeded, that was good; even if it failed, they would learn something.
More precisely, they might have hoped Baekyeon would be caught and forced to confess.
‘Because then my vigilance would rise.’
They had used an attendant to poison me and attempted to approach me.
That alone would put me on guard. Perhaps that was exactly what they wanted.
‘Or they have some other purpose I don’t know about.’
There was not enough information to determine it precisely.
Moreover—
‘What matters here is…’
Rather than figuring out who had done it, I had to focus on the fact that someone had begun targeting me.
‘It’s probably because of yesterday.’
If the way I had appeared in the preliminary round had caused people to target me—
‘Good.’
That was exactly the situation I had expected.
‘Who did it can be figured out in time.’
I twisted my stiff neck from side to side and left the room.
The smell of urine lingered faintly, so I would have to arrange for the room to be cleaned as well.
“Ah, and one more thing.”
As I crossed the wooden veranda, I continued speaking.
“I heard the dead attendant has a younger brother and a mother.”
The moment I said that, the person who had disappeared earlier appeared behind me.
“I will take care of it.”
“Are you insane? Take care of what?”
I looked disgusted.
What a terrifying way to phrase it.
“First, confirm whether they really exist.”
I asked him to determine whether Baekyeon had said it merely to save her life.
Then, if what she had said proved true—
“I’ll give you a pouch later. Find her family and deliver it to them.”
I intended to send the money through someone else.
The amount would be exactly what Baekyeon had said she had been promised by her employer.
The price she had put on her own life.
“…Understood.”
After answering, the man vanished without another word.
Pat. Pat.
I brushed off my clothes and continued walking.
Not a single cloud could be seen in the sky.
As sunlight gradually spread across it, a warm atmosphere settled over the world.
Yet unlike the weather, my mood was thoroughly unpleasant.
Was it because I had killed someone first thing in the morning?
No.
‘Why should I care about someone who tried to pull that kind of shit on me?’
It was simply because my dream had been unsettling.
And yet I couldn’t remember what the dream had been about.
That was why I felt even worse.
I clicked my tongue and stepped forward.
‘Someone who would do this to me.’
I had thought about it for a moment earlier.
No matter how I considered it, the culprit had to be one of two people.
‘One is the Blade King. There’s a good chance it was that old man.’
And the other possibility was—
‘The Emei Sect (峨嵋派).’
One of the Nine Sects and One Alliance, based in Sichuan.
It was an unusual sect composed entirely of Buddhist nuns.
I had suddenly thought of them because of a certain “rumor” I had heard in my previous life.
‘I should look into them.’
Something strange was beginning to stink.
******************
While Gu Yangcheon was racking his brain and turning the matter over in his mind,
the Martial Alliance had begun preparing for the second day of the preliminary rounds.
“White goes over here…!”
The situation was not much different from the first day.
If there was a difference, it was that there seemed to be even more people.
It was not twice as many, but there were definitely more participants than on the first day.
The reason was simple.
“They’re here…”
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on one place.
People were walking in from the entrance.
“It’s Shaolin.”
The sect based in Henan.
The sect whose momentum had been rising in recent years.
The people of Shaolin had arrived at the preliminary arena.
And, naturally, among the countless Shaolin martial artists, there was one who drew everyone’s attention.
“It’s the Divine Dragon (神龍)…”
“So that young man is the Divine Dragon.”
The young man at the very front of the Shaolin participants in the Martial Contest.
He was a handsome youth who looked as though he had only just passed the age of twenty, with clear and well-defined features.
The unusual thing was his eyes.
They were yellow.
Yellow eyes, said to belong to those born with the Heavenly Killing Star.
Seeing the Divine Dragon possessing eyes similar to those, people around him began to whisper.
“…If he has yellow eyes, doesn’t that mean he’s surely born with the Heavenly Killing Star? That’s what I heard.”
A man watching them muttered, and the person beside him suddenly snapped in anger.
“What a madman! You say Shaolin’s Divine Dragon is born with the Heavenly Killing Star? Do you want them to beat you black and blue?”
“No… I only said it because I thought I’d heard something like that.”
“Keep your mouth shut. It would be a disaster if they happened to hear you.”
The youngest person ever to reach the Transformation Realm, as verified by the Alliance.
For a peerless genius destined to be remembered throughout history to possess the Heavenly Killing Star? It was absurd.
“Of all days, they had to come on the same day… I hope they end up in a different group.”
“They look like a bunch of brats. What’s there to be so afraid of? Tsk, tsk.”
Thirty percent were intimidated in advance.
Thirty percent looked down on them.
Thirty percent watched with interest.
“…”
The Divine Dragon quietly surveyed his surroundings as he observed the gazes of those people.
“Are you nervous?”
Someone spoke to him.
It was Museong, an elder martial brother to the Divine Dragon.
“…No.”
“Don’t deny it. It’s only natural to be nervous. You never even got to participate in the Dragon-Phoenix Conference, after all.”
“…”
Since the Dragon-Phoenix Conference had not been held due to the incident that had just occurred, this was effectively the first time the Divine Dragon had appeared at an official event.
“But you can do it. We are Shaolin, after all.”
His words were deep and heavy, carrying a powerful presence.
His tone was filled with firm pride and faith in Shaolin.
Hearing that, the Divine Dragon slowly nodded.
An uncomfortable emotion rose within him. He forcefully suppressed it and said,
“…Yes. I can do it.”
No. I have to do it somehow.
The Divine Dragon swallowed those words.