Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 62

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#062

 

-You use chopsticks with both hands.

 

Right after the life-and-death battle with Dangmutae,

 

It was when I had frantically tried to reverse-engineer and understand the Mancang Huaweng, then collapsed and fallen asleep from exhaustion.

 

After a long time, I dreamed of my grandfather.

 

In the dream, I was a young child.

 

Why was that?

 

In the outside world, I kept aging and accumulating wounds on my body…

 

Yet when I dreamed, I strangely met my grandfather—whom I had never actually met during that time—as a young child.

 

In the dream, I was extremely excited.

 

Occasionally when commission payments came in like this, we would eat abundantly at a full table, and in the dream it was exactly one of those times.

 

The taste of food filled with various spices, incomparable to the boiled meat I usually ate for training, was truly mind-blowing.

 

Even while dreaming, saliva pooled in my mouth and I smacked my lips.

 

-You.

 

My grandfather gazed at me as I ate with chopsticks gripped in both hands, then suddenly spoke.

 

-When did you practice using chopsticks with your left hand?

 

The young me in the dream didn’t understand that question.

 

-I didn’t practice.

 

-You’re using chopsticks with both hands right now.

 

Tilting my head, I spoke with my mouth full of food.

 

-My left hand is part of my body just like my right hand, and since I’ve already repeated countless times how to hold chopsticks with my right hand, why wouldn’t my left hand be able to follow suit?

 

-…

 

My grandfather and master, Amje, maintained a long silence.

 

He tapped the rice grain stuck to the corner of my mouth with the staff he was holding.

 

-Didn’t I tell you it’s not proper manners to speak with your mouth full of food?

 

-Ah. Oh. I’m sorry.

 

-Yes. We can fix things one by one like this. If even beasts can do it, why couldn’t a human?

 

-Grandfather?

 

-…Hwi. You won’t forget the three promises you made with me.

 

My grandfather said.

 

I nodded as if it were obvious.

 

-Don’t use bladed weapons. Don’t hate people. And lastly… even if everyone hates me, I won’t give up on myself. Right?

 

-Yes. Well done. You remember well.

 

-But… why suddenly?

 

-…Hurry and eat. The noodles must be delicious.

 

And that night, my grandfather didn’t touch any food.

 

***

 

“Here it is.”

 

Upon reaching the third underground level, the first thing that caught my attention was the intense green mist.

 

I looked at the floor and walls.

 

The different materials were surely for a specific purpose.

 

Some people ask.

 

How did the once-famous Sichuan Tang Family, who once shook the world with poison and hidden weapons, end up in this state?

 

Without a doubt, the current Tang Family head’s status is so meager it wouldn’t even match the level of other great families’ protectors.

 

But despite their pathetic decline, no one in the Martial Arts World has ever openly despised or provoked them, which must be due to wariness of the madness inherent in their history.

 

And that was certainly the right judgment.

 

I don’t know the details of what happened in my previous life.

 

But along with the Tang Family’s destruction, something happened to the Sichuan Tang Family head that drove him mad, and he came to this third underground level of Manaakdangmun Samok and became Cheonhyang Dokmah.

 

-… …

 

Corpse poison.

 

This was a place where one could glimpse the madness of the Sichuan Dangmun era when they pursued the ultimate in poison.

 

The original sin of using even human primordial spirits as ingredients for the ultimate poison.

 

Before my eyes was a massive green lake.

 

From the edges of that lake, white bones filled heaven and earth.

 

-Sizzle… sizzle…

 

My fluttering clothes were melting and burning away even though I hadn’t gotten close.

 

The vengeful spirits were so densely condensed that even to my eyes as an ordinary martial artist, I could feel something dim frantically running around before me.

 

The result of the obsession of the Sichuan Dangmun in its distant past prime, when they sought to use even vengeful spirits as poison ingredients, melting beyond the limits of poison to even dissolve human minds.

 

Even someone with immunity to all poisons would have their mind collapse and body melt instantly if they didn’t prepare for this place.

 

The remaining traces of that were the true identity of the third underground level.

 

‘Am I managing to endure thanks to the Ebony Dragon Bracers?’

 

My master called Kunlun a group of crazy Taoists who believed in and filtered everything, but all their artifacts were genuine.

 

The mist surrounding me seemed to be wary of the Ebony Dragon Bracers.

 

I could see the mist avoiding my arms as I moved them.

 

‘In my case, it would have been even worse if there had been the Sichuan Dangmun’s conventional secret deadly poisons here instead of this abnormal poison.’

 

After all, my method of dealing with poison was merely the primitive approach of circulating internal energy to increase resistance.

 

Paradoxically, among poisons, this ultimate poison that exceeded limits and was immune to any existing antidote had become something I could handle now because it mixed even human primordial spirits as raw materials.

 

“How did Namgung Hwi even think to immerse his body in that?”

 

Seeing it with my own eyes made it even more unbelievable.

 

Kunlun’s wooden pieces, which were of lower grade than the Ebony Dragon Bracers, would have limits in blocking it.

 

Just before Cheonhyang Dokmah was executed, he had mentioned immersing his body in the Pool of Poison when he reached the position of Poison Master.

 

From the circumstances, he seemed to be referring to that.

 

“Then it should be around here.”

 

That lake wasn’t suitable for me anyway. What I wanted wasn’t to become Cheonhyang Dokmah.

 

I examined the surroundings based on his past words.

 

“This is it.”

 

There was a massive green monument in the Tower of Skulls.

 

Under a single beam of light, the green monument that exceeded three times my height displayed a noble bearing.

 

It was a bluish light as if the entire thing was made of jade and emitting the glow of a luminous pearl.

 

There were green iron chains wrapped around that monument.

 

Dangcheonswaeya.

 

The divine artifact that Cheonhyang Dokmah used to wield like a whip.

 

I don’t know where it originated from.

 

But the entire Martial Arts World trembled before this steel whip.

 

Normally, I wouldn’t be able to handle this either.

 

Only Cheonhyang Dokmah, whose blood had become deadly poison and who had conquered all poisons, could touch it, and above all, this Dangcheonswaeya was stained with corpse poison.

 

But precisely because of that, with the Ebony Dragon Bracers I now wore, I could grasp it.

 

‘…Being acknowledged as its master would be a separate matter though.’

 

I approached without hesitation.

 

The moment I reached out to grab it—

 

The world turned white.

 

“….”

 

For a moment I thought I had gone blind.

 

I wiped my eyes like lightning and leaped backward.

 

As I crouched low like a beast in vigilance, a voice reached my ears.

 

[Who are you. You weren’t the one who was supposed to come here. Something has gone wrong. Only the Dosinjiche should come here….]

 

‘This is…!’

 

I had heard that there were souls dwelling within Sinmul.

 

Was this it.

 

In my confusion, I tried to cool my head to figure out how to handle this.

 

Dozens of voices began echoing from all directions.

 

[An existence that eternally tears, kills. And crushes.]

 

[That being has come again.]

 

[You are… not even from Kunlun-.]

 

The voices stopped.

 

[You’re Cheonsal, aren’t you?]

 

I flinched.

 

Looking toward the voice, I shouted like lightning.

 

“The talent of Cheonsal…! Do you know what that is?!”

 

One of the crucial clues that could lead to understanding my death.

 

Even now, I still didn’t know what it was.

 

[Not just simple Cheonsalseong… how did a beast like you, a butcher… come here carrying even Kunlun’s artifacts…?]

 

“I’m asking you! What is the talent of Cheonsal? What exactly am I?!!”

 

Countless voices murmured simultaneously.

 

[Why are you trying to take this? You wouldn’t want it anyway.]

 

“I wouldn’t want it?”

 

Ignoring my words, the voices chattered among themselves.

 

[The Hyeolmogan hasn’t even bloomed yet?]

 

[That’s impossible. Something is forcibly blocking it. Among Cheonsal, this is such pure talent….]

 

[What being is it. What being dares to go against causality.]

 

I dismissed it as meaningless rambling from ghosts that wasn’t worth listening to further.

 

I focused.

 

As I tried to straighten my scattered vision, I could faintly see the Nokbiseok again through my blurred sight.

 

Above it, I could also see black chains that glowed green, coiled in a flexible form like a snake flowing down.

 

‘There isn’t much time left either.’

 

I strode forward and reached out my armored hand toward the chains.

 

[Stop! This is a Sinmul permitted only to the Dang Family, or at least to those who handle poison…! This isn’t a Sinmul left for invaders like you!]

 

The voice shouted harshly.

 

[No matter how you try to offset the poison with Kunlun’s lowly things, if Dangcheonswaeya itself doesn’t acknowledge its master, the end result will be death, so don’t do anything foolish…!]

 

-Clank!

 

I roughly snatched the chains.

 

-Hiss!!

 

In an instant, the surface of my armor melted away.

 

-Clang…! Clank crack…!

 

The chains thrashed like a living snake. They vibrated violently and writhed as if resisting my touch.

 

-Wooong…!

 

The Ebony Dragon Bracers sensed the foreign energy and glowed with golden eyes, vibrating intensely as the two energies clashed.

 

My hair fluttered.

 

The moment the chains’ resonance weakened, I subdued them and they began to coil powerfully around my forearm.

 

With metallic sounds, the chains began thrashing madly.

 

Rocks shattered from the whipping tail.

 

The Nokbiseok burst apart.

 

Avoiding that end, I pressed down with my whole body and wrapped the rest around my arm.

 

The green poison that overcame the Ebony Dragon Bracers’ neutralization melted and cut through my armor.

 

The remaining energy even melted the exposed bare skin, leaving traces of the chains like tattooing.

 

“Kuk…!”

 

But even so, I gritted my teeth and didn’t let go.

 

The smell of burning flesh spread everywhere.

 

A brief moment passed like that.

 

-Woong….

 

The chains stopped moving.

 

They explored my existence, then stopped moving as if accepting me.

 

And slowly, as if certain parts of the chains were melting and seeping in, they began coiling around my forearm on their own.

 

And like a snake apologizing to its master, they wrapped around the wounds created during their struggle and emitted a gentle green light.

 

‘Detoxification…?’

 

And beyond detoxification, where the chains had passed, there weren’t even any wounds.

 

[That Dangcheonswaeya….]

 

Now I could begin to see them.

 

The seven green ghosts surrounding me.

 

They muttered one by one.

 

[Among the pair of Dangcheonswaeya, the most noble Black acknowledged its master so quickly….]

 

[Even past Dosinjiche weren’t this fast.]

 

The voices were beyond resignation, even feeling futile.

 

Another voice rang out.

 

[…Rather than Dosinjiche, the Sinmul must have judged that Cheonsal’s talent was more suitable for its purpose.]

 

The green ghost that looked oldest stood before me.

 

[Since it’s come to this, everything is decided and now we can only leave what happens to heaven.]

 

Then it pointed to the black chains wrapped around my arm.

 

[Dangcheonswaeya is originally a creature that comes in male and female black and white pairs. If you truly seek perfection, head to where my mate is buried, Yeomhwasan. There you’ll find what’s most suitable for you.]

 

“Are you telling me to go find and take the remaining pair now? How suddenly kind of you. Why are you telling me such things?”

 

[Because that’s the Sinmul’s will. And we know that you’ll find this Dangcheonswaeya insufficient and unsatisfactory anyway.]

 

I was puzzled.

 

“Why would I…?”

 

The white light blocking my surroundings began to recede.

 

[Why, you ask?]

 

The green ghosts turned their backs and moved away.

 

[Because at the end of this Dangcheonswaeya Black’s chain, there’s no blade for you to so desperately desire….]

 

Darkness returned,

 

And the Sacheondangmun Ghost’s final voice scattered away.

 

[To tear and rend with.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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