The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 8
The second poison-making lesson.
It began unremarkably.
“Poison can be used as-is, but when properly blended, its efficacy doubles.”
The poison-making instructor, Dang Sanho, gestured, and scholars from Mandok Hall placed long sheets of paper before the students.
“Make the poison according to what’s written there. Ask if you don’t understand anything. Raise your hand and the scholars from Dokcho Pavilion will help. Don’t worry.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Whoever makes it best will receive a special Poison Insect. Now, begin!”
Dang Youxuan glanced at the paper and tossed ingredients into his Medicinal Cauldron.
‘I’ve been handling poison for years now. I could make this blindfolded.’
Splash. Splash.
He stirred it gently to keep it from sticking to the bottom, stealing glances at the others nearby.
‘What? Why is mine different from everyone else’s?’
His poison was noticeably darker in color than the others.
His memory of the poison-making method couldn’t possibly be wrong, so the problem had to be with that paper.
‘Don’t tell me the Secret Technique was lost along with the formula?’
Dang Youxuan’s pupils flickered with uncertainty.
Seeing this, Dang Sanho tapped the scholar beside her.
“Hey. Go check on him.”
“Senior. But calling a direct descendant like that, surely—”
“What’s the problem? ‘Within Yeonhakgak, all who study are equal.’ Isn’t that what the first founder, heaven-like in wisdom, said with his own mouth?”
“Well, true as that may be…”
“Why all this fussing about family rules? Go check on him. His mixture looks wrong.”
“Yes, yes. Understood.”
Under Dang Sanho’s insistence, the young scholar trudged over to Dang Youxuan.
“Is something the matter?”
“Ah. Could you take a look at this?”
Dang Youxuan held out his hand, pointing to the deep violet liquid.
‘The color does look off.’
The young scholar made the same observation as his senior, then took some of the poison and smelled it—a common method among the Dang Family’s martial practitioners when testing poison.
It was a standard technique among those who knew their poisons.
‘Yes. Look and realize it’s your mistake. Then learn from it.’
His attitude conveyed absolute certainty that the fault lay elsewhere.
“Uh… uhhh… wait!?”
‘Why? What is it? Why is he reacting like that? What did I misunderstand?’
The intense reaction left him bewildered instead.
Concerned, Dang Youxuan leaned forward to study the young scholar’s face.
The scholar glanced back and forth between the poison and Dang Sanho, then suddenly rushed off.
“Wait, just a moment!”
He cradled the vessel holding the poison in both hands as though it were a precious treasure and showed it to Dang Sanho.
As the two conversed, other scholars waiting nearby crowded around them.
Dang Youxuan pretended to be confused and extended his senses to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“Senior. This is Duanchang Tears. It’s identical to the real thing, not a heat variation.”
“That’s impossible. Could you have just failed to control the proportions?”
“No, he added the ingredients with too much confidence for that.”
“Did he see a blending formula somewhere, perhaps? There are plenty of books in the Archives. And the one in Gauju Hall.”
“But that’s not even a Secret Technique.”
“Besides, he never took anything out of Mandok Hall. And this is the first day of teaching anyway.”
‘Ah.’
Dang Youxuan nodded slightly.
They must have taught the heat variation to prevent students from dying while making poison.
It was a relief that the poison-making method itself hadn’t been lost.
Relief flooded through him, loosening the tight knot in his chest.
‘But of all things, I ended up making the real version instead?’
That thought made the tension return, settling uncomfortably in his stomach.
The more he listened, the more it sank in that he’d unnecessarily created a problem.
‘I was genuinely trying to just help this time. Ha!’
He’d lost his touch with power control—it had been so long since he’d made poison carefully.
Ha-ha-ha!
Dang Youxuan puffed out his stomach in silent laughter.
‘Descendants, praise me! I am the master of Mandok Hall, the Poison Lord himself! Hahahaha!’
As Dang Youxuan laughed in his pride, struck by some peculiar ecstasy, the instructors’ voices grew louder still.
“You don’t believe me? Then I’ll taste it myself.”
“You’ll die!”
“No I won’t, you brats.”
“Since you won’t believe me, I’ll prove it to you!”
Dang Sanho snapped irritably and plunged her finger deep into the poison.
“Aaaaaah! Senior, why are you eating that!”
“Are you insane? Spit it out now!”
“The antidote—where’s the antidote!?”
“Shut it. Is there something to frighten the children over?”
Dang Sanho frowned and flicked the arm of the scholar who’d been fumbling through his sleeves.
In that instant her fingertip darkened to black, then just as swiftly returned to its natural color.
‘That’s right. If one couldn’t survive poison of this caliber, you couldn’t claim membership in Mandok Hall.’
Dang Youxuan, torn between grumbling and satisfaction, smiled with quiet pride.
Lost in that brief reverie, Dang Sanho came tramping forward until she stood directly before him.
She thrust a piece of paper at him without preamble.
Flutter.
Dang Sanho waved the paper.
Blink.
When no further word came, Dang Youxuan simply blinked in response.
“Write it down.”
“Write what?”
“The Blending Formula.”
“Pardon?”
Dang Youxuan echoed back in bewilderment.
Yet his hands were already moving, accepting the brush with practiced ease.
At this, Dang Sanho’s lips curved upward in a lopsided smirk, and she spoke with playful intent.
“Ever heard of the Duanchang Tears?”
Of course he had.
By the characters themselves, it was a toxin that made one feel the exquisite agony of one’s very intestines tearing apart.
He’d eaten it instead of rice at every meal, smeared it into wounds—he couldn’t possibly not know it.
Yet in this world, there are times when what you know must be feigned as unknown, and what you don’t know claimed as knowing.
Just like now.
“No, ma’am.”
“What you just made is exactly that. You, who’ve never once set eyes on a poison unknown except to those of Mandok Hall—you created it.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Isn’t it remarkable?”
“Remarkable indeed.”
Dang Youxuan replied woodenly and wrote out the Blending Formula in meticulous detail as he recalled it, then handed it over.
Dang Sanho accepted it with a widening grin.
“Listen here, young master.”
“Is it proper to use such an address within Yeonhakgak?”
“Hmm. Striking response, aren’t you?”
“Not striking at all—merely the proper bearing of a student before an instructor.”
“I see.”
His reply came crisp and measured as a recitation from a book, and Dang Sanho’s eyes curved into crescents.
Around them, glances began to gather once more.
In the distance, Dang Jongcheon could be seen approaching with a sigh.
Please—just stop her.
“If you have no interest in becoming the head of the household, how about Mandok Hall instead? You’ve got talent.”
‘Mandok Hall is out of the question!’
Dang Youxuan screamed silently within.
What sort of place was Mandok Hall?
The source of every poison the Dang Family possessed.
In other words, a place where poison-obsessed fanatics would do anything—absolutely anything—for their toxins.
Even conduct experiments on human subjects.
‘They say talented people get dragged there first. Ugh. I hate it!’
Dang Youxuan shuddered, remembering the experiments he’d endured in Mandok Hall in the past.
Being forcibly seized and injected with poisons was bad enough, but the prospect of spending every daylight hour imprisoned indoors, researching nothing but toxins, was absolutely intolerable.
“That’s enough.”
While Dang Youxuan lingered in memory, delaying his answer, Dang Jongcheon fixed him with a sharp stare, hands clasped behind his back.
Dang Sanho blinked beneath the towering shadow that obscured her entirely, then smiled with feral amusement.
“Does the Thirteenth Elder covet it as well?”
She spoke with unhurried ease, unbowed by the gulf in stature and rank between them.
“But please, let’s observe the order. I made the offer first.”
“Whether you made the offer or not is irrelevant. I have no interest in rebels who disregard rules.”
“When do you grow strong by merely following rules? True strength emerges from breaking the mold, from seeing what others cannot. That is how one becomes stronger than anyone else.”
“That does not excuse careless conduct.”
‘I suppose I have been rather careless.’
Dang Youxuan thought dryly.
You learn the same things twice, three times over.
Is it boring? Isn’t it boring?
It’s boring enough to drive you mad.
Of course, now I’m too tangled up in complications to have time for boredom.
‘How much worse can it get? Heh heh heh.’
As he laughed hollowly to himself, Dang Sanho drew him into a protective embrace.
“Why are you trying to discourage our boy?”
“Who is ‘our’ boy?”
‘That’s exactly what I want to ask.’
Dang Jongcheon wore the same bewildered expression as Dang Youxuan.
Yet Dang Sanho’s shamelessness was unshaken.
“He’s ours, since he brought the Secret Scripture!”
If sharing the Secret Scripture only meant being dragged to Mandok Hall, he’d hand it over to his brothers next time.
If only such a thing were possible—he genuinely wished it were.
‘Father, why are all those belonging to Mandok Hall, then and now, without exception, completely mad?’
Shouldn’t something have changed in a hundred years?
Passing down good poison is fine, but if you pass down personality too, what are tender-hearted(?) children like me supposed to do!
Trapped in Dang Sanho’s arms, Dang Youxuan squeezed his eyes shut and allowed himself to be shaken as she moved.
Seeing how pathetic he looked, Dang Jongcheon, who had been heaping criticism on him all along, quietly tugged at Dang Youxuan’s arm.
Then Dang Sunho seized the remaining arm and pulled back toward himself.
One side insisted on dragging him to Mandok Hall no matter what, while the other growled that it didn’t matter where they took him—he needed to fix his attitude.
With both arms held fast, Dang Youxuan had no hands left to cover his ears, so he moved like a puppet, a serene expression on his face, pulled this way and that.
‘Both of you, stop. My head is ringing.’
He couldn’t fathom why a simple plan to instruct the younger generation had become so hopelessly entangled.
Dang Youxuan exhaled heavily, overwhelming fatigue washing over him.
‘I hope the next lesson passes quietly, at least.’
And the heavens granted Dang Youxuan no such mercy.
Sichuan Dang Family Redeemed Genius
Author |
Lee Il-yeong
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Team
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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