By the time I arrived at the Dang Clan, night had already fallen.
I had arrived in the morning, handled various matters, and even completed the Heavenly Poison Pill, so one might think the work was more or less finished, but research regarding the Heavenly Poison Pill had to continue even after that.
It was only natural. Though it was indeed complete, I had to account for various possibilities.
And. Unlike the favorable result, the process had been anything but smooth.
“…Kuhuk…!”
Splatter! Blood poured onto the floor. Just enough to dampen it slightly. It was not my blood.
I approached the man who seemed about to collapse from exhaustion and placed my hand on his back.
Buzz-!! I untangled his knotted internal qi and examined his insides.
Sure enough, turbid qi had gathered again.
It wasn't a large amount, but for this much to accumulate in a single day meant it was quite a lot. This was proof that he had used his internal qi excessively.
I regulated his qi and erased the turbid qi as well.
At that, the man—the Poison King—his breathing rapidly calmed.
“Huuuk…. Huuuu….”
“Are you alright?”
“…Thank you.”
“Not at all. I'm glad I could be of help.”
The Poison King rose unsteadily. His face was filled with deep exhaustion.
It was only natural. He had drawn out that much qi in a short time; a slight mistake could have led to qi deviation.
Fwoosh-!
I shook my hand, removing the turbid qi from the Poison King. It burned in flames, and a faint rotten stench wafted.
The Poison King confirmed this and looked at me with a strange gaze, asking,
“I'd been curious about this since earlier.”
“Yes.”
“Just how do you extract turbid qi?”
“…Pardon?”
How do I extract it? At that rather odd question, I tilted my head.
“I just grab it because I can see it, that's all.”
As I answered, I realized I had heard this before.
I believe it was Baeknyeongeom….
She had asked me about turbid qi as well.
'My answer was the same as now.'
I must have given the same answer then.
That I just grabbed it and pulled it out because I could see it.
And then… probably… Baeknyeongeom's expression had been the same as the Poison King's now.
“…So you just grab it.”
A face that said he couldn't quite understand. At that expression, I asked,
“…Is it really that difficult?”
I just grab the turbid qi, pull it out, and burn it—what's so difficult about that?
It was something I couldn't quite understand.
However.
“…Did you ask if it's difficult?”
It seemed the Poison King likewise couldn't understand.
“You know the qi inside the body isn't still but is constantly moving, even if only gently.”
“I know.”
One could control its speed according to one's will, but stopping it completely was impossible.
Deliberately stopping that moving qi was, in other words,
'No different from inducing qi deviation.'
To a martial artist, it was the same as attempting suicide.
“Extracting only the turbid qi from such moving qi… do you think that's easy? It's like finding a needle in a flowing valley stream.”
“Hmm.”
Finding a needle floating in moving water. It certainly sounded difficult when described that way….
“But I can do it.”
“...”
“Then isn't that good enough?”
What more needed to be said when I could see it and pluck it out? That was all I could say. Hearing this, the Poison King eventually had to close his mouth.
“…I… see. I see….”
Before long, he even let out a groan as if giving up.
He seemed to think further words were meaningless.
Seeing that reaction, I scratched my head.
'Well, this is something.'
I recalled the words Paejon had mentioned in passing. If I had a talent, he had said, my most outstanding ones were sensing qi and controlling it.
I hadn't thought much of it when I heard it, but going through these incidents, it looked a little different each time.
'So I have at least this.'
It wasn't martial arts talent. But if I had at least something like this, could it be a small comfort?
'Interesting.'
The Poison King's reaction was the same face I used to make when looking at geniuses in my past life.
The faces of those guys asking why they couldn't do this. My face upon hearing that was exactly like the Poison King's.
'Hmm….'
The feeling was novel, but it didn't quite feel real.
Being good at controlling qi? It was better than nothing, but it was ambiguous how to actually make use of it.
At best, it was only useful for extracting turbid qi or stabilizing energy, as I had done for the Poison King.
'Anyway.'
Right now, my talent wasn't such a major issue.
What mattered here now wasn't that, but….
'…the result of the current situation.'
While I tended to the Poison King, I surveyed my surroundings. The place we were in was still the manufacturing room where we had been making the Heavenly Poison Pill.
The difference from the morning was that it was now in much greater disarray.
All the remaining demon stones were shattered and scattered across the floor, and several batches of mixture were laid about.
It pained me to think that all of it was money, but it was all for the sake of experimentation.
We had succeeded in manufacturing the Heavenly Poison Pill, but the result had been infused with fire qi rather than poison qi.
Faced with this result, I thought my own qi seeping into the manufacturing process was the cause.
Thus, I repeated several experiments.
The first was.
'The problem with the demon stones.'
When I first attempted it, I recalled that after grinding the demon stone—whose qi I had extracted and reinserted—the demon stone had shattered the moment it left my hand.
So the first experiment concerned this.
Whether a demon stone infused with qi was destroyed by leaving my hand, or because an appropriate amount had been ground away—I wanted to determine this first. Fortunately, I could find out the result immediately.
'Demon stones shatter the instant they leave my hand.'
It didn't matter how much they were ground. They shattered simply by leaving my hand. Furthermore,
'If too much is ground and added, the ingredients can't handle it.'
If leaving the hand was the problem, I also tried continuously grinding and adding without letting go, but when a certain amount was exceeded, the light faded from the mixture.
Meaning all the qi the Spiritual Pill was supposed to contain had been extinguished.
'What a mess.'
A hollow laugh escaped me at that. Because adding too much made it another mess.
In other words.
Add an appropriate amount and regulate it, but you must not let go of it with your hand.
This was something to keep in mind when adding demon stones to the mixture.
This was the fact I had grasped after using about two demon stones.
Right.
'So far, so good.'
Even though I had used up two red demon stones to confirm it, finding a solution was what mattered.
…The problem was.
'What comes next.'
After the matter with the demon stones came the next problem. Namely, how to fill the Heavenly Poison Pill with poison qi.
If it was because of my qi that fire qi had entered the Spiritual Pill, then the method to insert poison qi was obvious.
'Inject the internal qi of one who possesses poison qi into an empty demon stone.'
If I completed it that way, wouldn't it become a Heavenly Poison Pill? That was the first thought that came to mind.
But how to do it?
Naturally, I had to try it first.
What was fortunate here was.
'While I'm the only one who can extract and absorb qi, anyone can inject it.'
As long as it wasn't demonic qi. Others could also insert qi into an empty demon stone.
Then the answer was simple.
Extract the qi from the demon stone and fill it with poison qi.
And the one to fill it with poison qi was right beside me.
The Poison King (毒王).
He was the most outstanding figure in the current Central Plains when it came to poison arts, so I immediately asked him.
Having already witnessed the completion of the Heavenly Poison Pill, the Poison King helped without doubting my words.
So up until then, I thought it would go smoothly.
I would fill it with qi, add it to the mixture, and complete it. That was what I thought.
'…But the biggest problem occurred.'
In this process, I discovered the worst problem.
'Who would have thought injecting internal qi into an empty demon stone would be so difficult?'
That was the part I had overlooked.
The Poison King was clearly a King-class martial artist. Poison arts, like fire arts, required a considerable amount of internal qi.
So I had thought it wouldn't be too hard for the Poison King to fill a demon stone.
Contrary to my expectations, the Poison King struggled to inject qi into the demon stone.
It was strange.
The qi contained within a red demon stone was certainly not a small amount, but it wasn't an amount so large that it would be hard to fill.
At least, I had thought the Poison King I knew could fill it easily.
'…But he struggled far too much.'
Surprisingly, the Poison King found filling even a single demon stone burdensome.
How could that be? Unable to understand, I asked, and the Poison King spoke to me, breaking out in a cold sweat.
What he said then was clear.
'He said that regardless of how much he gave, the amount that went in was small.'
Even if he poured strength into it, what entered was at best one-tenth of the force he gave.
That was what the Poison King mentioned, but hearing this, I only grew more doubtful.
'Why?'
It was because I was different from the Poison King.
On my end, it went in exactly as I put it, whereas the Poison King said only a minuscule amount was injected. I couldn't figure out what the problem was.
'Could it be because I possess the Heavenly Demon Absorption Technique?'
Having demonic arts versus not having them.
I wondered if that could possibly be the issue, but this was something I could only find out through further experimentation.
Fortunately, even in this situation, the Poison King ultimately succeeded in grinding his teeth and filling a single demon stone.
The batch into which the completed demon stone was added also absorbed the light without incident.
And so, four Heavenly Poison Pills were barely completed.
'This is the real thing.'
The completed Heavenly Poison Pills contained poison qi, making them identical to the Spiritual Pill I knew.
This gave me certainty.
'I think the properties are determined by what kind of internal qi is contained in the demon stone.'
Since I used fire arts, fire qi was contained, and the Poison King's poison qi seeped in to make it a Heavenly Poison Pill.
I judged that if something else were contained, it would likewise harmonize with that.
And.
'If my prediction is correct.'
The manufacturing method in my hand contained tremendous value.
'It means I can obtain any kind of qi.'
Whether it was ice qi or fire qi, it meant one could easily obtain qi or immunities that were normally difficult to acquire.
There was a possibility that conflicting energies would clash and repel each other, but that was something one could only know by trying.
For now, simply being able to easily obtain other qi was an unbelievable thing.
'Hmmm.'
Looking at the completed Heavenly Poison Pills, I turned my gaze to the Poison King.
He had barely managed to recover his qi, but he looked exhausted all the same.
'If he's driven to that state…'
He ended up like that from filling just one demon stone. In that case, it was safe to assume it was impossible for anyone below the Poison King.
'So that's why it felt a bit easy.'
In the end, was this the final hurdle?
'If I want to commercialize this, I need to solve this problem quickly.'
I had to find a way somehow.
To do that….
“For now, please go back and rest. You must be very tired.”
“…Huuu….”
“We've found a way somehow, so can't you breathe a little easier?”
“…Yes, that's also true.”
The Poison King's face was filled with reluctance, but having ultimately succeeded in creating the Heavenly Poison Pill, he also felt a sense of relief.
“Let's stop for today and rest… I'll see you tomorrow. And.”
Looking at the exhausted Poison King, I subtly added,
“I think I may have something to ask regarding Young Lady Dang. Would that be alright?”
“...”
When I mentioned Dang Soyeol, the Poison King swallowed a shallow groan. He seemed to vaguely know what I wanted to ask.
“…We'll see tomorrow.”
“Yes. Please rest.”
Rather than answering properly, the Poison King tried to avoid it, and I decided to respect that choice.
'For now,' that is.
After giving a light bow, the Poison King left the manufacturing room first.
I followed him immediately, then suddenly lowered my gaze.
“…Hmmm….”
Something was bothering me.
Looking at the fragments of shattered demon stones flickering out on the floor, I recalled something.
'Everything's fine, but…'
There was one unsettling thing.
'In the end, the Heavenly Poison Pill won't work unless I grind demon stones infused with qi.'
The final ingredient of the Heavenly Poison Pill. Demon stones containing qi.
That fact clawed at my insides like a hook, leaving me uneasy.
The reason being.
'Then… how was it made in the past?'
How on earth they had obtained that final ingredient.
If you had to extract qi from a demon stone and reinsert it.
It meant someone had to extract all the qi from a demon stone.
Which meant, could it be….
'Back when the Heavenly Poison Pill was made in the past.'
Someone just like me.
Could it mean there existed someone who could extract qi from demon stones?
That thought kept circling in my head.