The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 184

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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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Chapter 184. Difficult

 

 

Dark night.

Byeokryeokgae, who had given orders to the Gaebang Members at Gwanje Temple, appeared near Dan Mok House.

Ha Mu-baek had already returned.

“This place will be my home for the time being.”

He spread a straw mat in front of some house’s wall and lay down on that spot.

He covered himself with tattered cloth and made a suitable bundle of straw to use as a pillow.

Stars from the sky poured down onto his face.

Byeokryeokgae, who had been looking at the stars with a dark expression, soon fell asleep.

While keeping his sharply honed ki sense spread around Dan Mok House.

The next morning.

The surroundings were full of vitality.

“Yawn.”

He yawned and opened his eyes to find several coins in front of his mat.

He hadn’t even properly begged and had just been sleeping, yet this was already happening.

Just a short while ago, such a thing would have been unimaginable.

Looking around, there were many people coming and going. Thanks to those people, the streets were overflowing with liveliness.

“I don’t think it was like this before…”

Byeokryeokgae tilted his head in puzzlement.

As he begged for food with a broken gourd while observing his surroundings.

Street stalls began setting up one by one.

Peddlers with backpacks were also walking around here and there.

A small market had formed on the streets around Dan Mok House.

This place wasn’t like this before.

It had been a quiet street.

A market that had truly formed in an instant.

[Look into where these street vendors came from.]

Byeokryeokgae instantly sharpened his eyes and sent a sound transmission to his subordinates who were begging in the area.

It wasn’t a place where street stalls should have set up. It had been a street with little foot traffic.

Yet street stalls had moved in, and people began gathering one by one.

The order was reversed.

Usually, street stalls would set up where people gathered.

‘Gwang Hoe-cheon. Is this your doing?’

Gwang Hoe-cheon.

Knowing that bastard was likely hiding in Danan Trading Company, this scene looked even more strange.

It seemed Gwang Hoe-cheon was pulling strings using Danan Trading Company.

He had mobilized merchants to monitor Dan Mok House.

Perhaps even that woman buying goods from the street stall was someone Gwang Hoe-cheon had sent to monitor Dan Mok House.

Once he started suspecting one thing, everything around Dan Mok House became suspicious.

It seemed he wouldn’t be able to leave this place for a while.

The sun rose and sunlight began shining down on where Byeokryeokgae was positioned.

If it had been hot summer, he would have sought shade, but now it was winter with cold winds blowing fiercely.

The warmth was actually just right.

“Hehe. I picked a good spot.”

Laughing like that, he looked down at his begging gourd.

Cold rice mixed with all sorts of food was in it.

With more street vendors, food sellers had also gathered, making his begging gourd quite abundant.

Byeokryeokgae grinned, showing his yellowed teeth, and began slowly scooping up the food with his hands.

Even while doing so, his ki sense sharply observed the street vendors everywhere.

 

***

 

Hyeong Ui-cheon sat in a chair and watched that scene from afar through the window.

There were no traces of last night anywhere.

The view of Dan Mok House’s surroundings, visible only as a small dot.

Nevertheless, it didn’t matter.

Hyeong Ui-cheon held a small device in his hand.

It was an item from the Western Region.

A device that could magnify distant objects to see them as if they were close, a telescope.

Thanks to this device, even with his internal energy restricted, Hyeong Ui-cheon could roughly observe the situation at Dan Mok House.

Though it wasn’t as good as enhancing his eye power with internal energy to observe.

Drawing upon the internal energy of his middle dantian instead of the restricted lower dantian wasn’t easy either.

Due to last night’s aftermath, his heart area still throbbed.

“As expected, their vigilance has intensified.”

Beggars had positioned themselves in various spots near the Dan Mok family’s house, begging.

Among them was an unforgettable face.

Byeokryeokgae.

Then.

The person who had appeared at the final moment and defeated him.

The person who had made him live as Hyeong Ui-cheon.

Last night, one opportunity had been given.

But he had failed.

Ha Mu-baek.

Because of that bastard.

Hyeong Ui-cheon put down the telescope and looked down at his own body.

Even when he lowered his head, he couldn’t see below because of his large belly.

Truly an unbearably dull appearance.

An appearance he had once even despised. Yet he had to live with such an appearance.

“Perhaps I should release the restriction…”

No, now the desire to release the restriction was slowly rising.

Before that, first.

He thought about trying to use the Soul Sleep Poison.

Since he was gathering meaningful data from Wolryong Inn and Wolryong Pavilion.

Today, he felt he should examine the Soul Sleep Poison for now.

 

***

 

Dang Ji-yeon’s beautiful eyebrows furrowed.

She had analyzed it using every method she knew, but couldn’t identify the poison.

It was definitely poison.

But she couldn’t understand its purpose.

An addictive poison that caused food cravings.

What caused the addiction, what caused the cravings.

It was still completely unclear.

“It’s difficult. It feels like something important has been severed.”

She had found several medicinal ingredients that went into this poison. But they were all just ordinary things.

Insignificant poisons.

She couldn’t figure out what the crucial element was.

“I’ll have to start eating there from this morning.”

Dang Ji-yeon prepared herself and left the inn.

To obtain this unidentified poison, she had to dine at Wolryong Inn.

She had secured a special room at a fine inn, yet had to eat her meals elsewhere.

Dang Ji-yeon headed to the Maengryong Training Ground at Gyoryong Hall.

She planned to meet Ha Mu-baek and Han Seol-bing there before going to Wolryong Inn.

When she arrived at the training ground, her younger sibling was diligently cultivating.

To think that brat had become such a person.

This was something even she hadn’t anticipated.

When Father said he would send that brat to the Maengryong Corps, she had opposed it.

He wouldn’t change anyway, and would surely die a dog’s death in Sanwol Demon Forest two years later in that state.

Of course, Father wouldn’t have let him die like that.

But that would have required using the Tang Family’s power, which she thought was a pointless waste.

‘I was wrong.’

Dang Ji-yeon chuckled softly.

The cause of her being wrong.

Ha Mu-baek, her younger sibling’s instructor, was walking over from that direction.

“Any results?”

At Ha Mu-baek’s question, Dang Ji-yeon shook her head.

Ha Mu-baek nodded as if he had expected that answer.

[Do you perhaps know about the Blood Cult’s poisons?]

At the same time, she heard a sound transmission in her ear.

Dang Ji-yeon’s body stiffened with a start.

Blood Cult poisons.

Suddenly.

Why that?

Dang Ji-yeon looked at Ha Mu-baek with eyes full of such questions.

Then Han Seol-bing also arrived.

Since gathering to head to Wolryong Inn had become no different from their daily routine, the cadets only glanced over without any particular reaction.

“It seems the Blood Cult is involved.”

Ha Mu-baek spoke quietly as they headed to Wolryong Inn.

“The Blood Cult?”

“Last night, twenty Blood Cult members snuck into Muchang. We caught them all, but they all committed suicide.”

Ha Mu-baek spoke with a regretful expression.

“That’s impressive. To think you couldn’t prevent their suicide, Instructor.”

Han Seol-bing spoke as if surprised.

“I didn’t expect that either.”

There was irritation in Ha Mu-baek’s voice.

If he had caught even one of them, he might have been able to learn something more.

“Can we say the Blood Cult and the poison are related based on just that?”

Dang Ji-yeon asked.

“The Beggar Sect says there’s someone in Danan Trading Company who’s been colluding with the Blood Cult.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s response, Dang Ji-yeon raised no further questions.

“The Blood Cult…”

She searched her memories.

She had speculated about a combination of specific poisons and specific poison arts, but couldn’t figure out what they were.

Among the candidates for specific poison arts, the Blood Cult’s Blood Art had been excluded.

She had ruled it out thinking it couldn’t be that.

Dang Ji-yeon pondered, searching her memories.

She stopped walking abruptly.

Her expression changed strangely.

“No way… that thing…”

She seemed to have remembered something.

Ha Mu-baek and Han Seol-bing’s gazes turned to her.

The three people stopped still in the middle of the bustling marketplace.

The gazes of passersby turned to the three people.

“Let’s move somewhere else first.”

Saying this, Dang Ji-yeon entered the nearest teahouse that caught her eye.

The three people sat in a secluded spot.

“I’ve set up an energy barrier, so no one will be able to hear our conversation.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s words, Dang Ji-yeon nodded lightly.

“What’s the matter?”

Han Seol-bing asked.

Dang Ji-yeon’s expression was far from ordinary.

“It’s still just speculation. I only heard about it from Grandfather…”

The previous Sichuan Tang Family Head.

Poison Emperor Dang Ja-cheong.

When it came to poisons, he was a person of vast knowledge with no gaps.

A person said to know everything about poisons, regardless of orthodox or unorthodox.

“Golden Spirit Gluttonous Blood Poison Art.”

Dang Ji-yeon spoke quietly.

Even the name sounded ominous.

Gluttony.

“Grandfather said it was closer to mystical arts than martial arts or poison arts… that kind of poison art. He said it was something that shouldn’t exist in this world.”

Dang Ji-yeon’s complexion was dark.

“It’s a Blood Art I’ve never heard of.”

Ha Mu-baek’s aura grew heavy.

“That’s understandable. I heard it was lost even within the Blood Cult. From Grandfather.”

At those words, questions arose in Ha Mu-baek and Han Seol-bing’s eyes.

How did Dang Ja-cheong know about a poison art that was lost even within the Blood Cult?

And how did he know that it had been lost within the Blood Cult?

As if reading those questions, Dang Ji-yeon shrugged her shoulders.

“He’s someone who collected all books and documents about poisons that exist under heaven… He said it was content from some deceased person’s memoir or something like that. So even Grandfather was half-believing, half-doubting it.”

Ha Mu-baek and Han Seol-bing focused on Dang Ji-yeon’s story.

“I also heard it like listening to an old tale from Grandfather. I had asked him once. What he thought was the most terrible poison.”

If it was a story heard then, perhaps this Golden Spirit Gluttonous Blood Poison Art was related to that terrible poison.

Maybe the poison they had eaten at Wolryong Inn was that very poison.

The word ‘gluttony’ brought such thoughts to mind.

The behavior shown by those who ate the food at Wolryong Inn, if defined in two characters, was indeed gluttony.

“You know about the Blood Cult’s jiangshi, right?”

Ha Mu-baek and Han Seol-bing nodded. How could these two not know about that?

They had experienced it to a sickening degree.

“You also know there’s a Blood Art that creates jiangshi.”

At those words, the two looked at Dang Ji-yeon with surprised gazes. As if wondering how she knew that fact.

“The jiangshi poison in a Death Jiangshi’s fangs can turn even healthy people into jiangshi.”

Dang Ji-yeon was extensively knowledgeable about the Blood Cult’s jiangshi.

“I don’t know the name of the poison. However, I was told that the poison created using the Golden Spirit Gluttony Blood Poison Art turns normal people into jiangshi, and those jiangshi endlessly try to devour everything. They’re called Devouring Jiangshi.”

“Anyway, those Blood Cult bastards….”

Profanity flowed from Ha Mu-baek’s mouth.

Were these bastards obsessed with jiangshi?

To think that what they were doing after entering Muchang was experimenting with jiangshi-creating poison.

On top of that, the traitorous bastard who led the Dan Mok Noble Family to annihilation was also mixed in among them.

Killing intent began to slowly rise from Ha Mu-baek’s body.

Han Seol-bing gulped down dry saliva.

Dang Ji-yeon was equally tense at Ha Mu-baek’s sudden demeanor.

She hurriedly continued her story.

“But that Blood Hole has disappeared.”

At those words, Ha Mu-baek’s killing intent was abruptly cut off.

He then once again cast a questioning gaze filled with doubt toward her.

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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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