Translator: bjgoofy

As we were thrown into confusion by the pain-filled screams and the approaching torchlight, a martial artist flew toward us from a low hill and shouted urgently.

"Vice Pavilion Master! It appears to be an ambush by the Blood Cult bastards. They're swarming in from all directions! It seems one of the reconnaissance teams was captured and the location of the contact point has been exposed!"

"Th-this is...!"

Just as Seol noona had worried before we arrived here, it wasn't that the Blood Cult had already discovered the contact point and laid a trap, but their timing was impeccable, attacking just as we arrived.

With the martial artist’s shout, three or four more people burst out from the wolf den, and with startled faces, shouted at the Vice Pavilion Master.

"Vice Pavilion Master!"

"Vice Pavilion Master, what shall we do!?"

"Your orders!"

At that, the Vice Pavilion Master pulled out a few sheets of paper from his chest and quickly thrust them into Sword Phoenix's hand with a resolute expression.

"Sword Phoenix, entrust these to the Alliance Leader!"

"This is...?"

It was clearly a collection of the information they had gathered, and he was now handing it over to Sword Phoenix.

"This is a map deduced from all the intel we've collected so far, pointing to the likely location of the Blood Cult's base. You must deliver it to the Alliance Leader!"

"Why are you giving this to me? What about you, Vice Pavilion Master!?"

"In situations like this, it's the job of us older ones to make sure the younger ones survive, don’t you think?"

"T-that’s..."

His words carried the tone of someone willing to sacrifice himself for our sake.

The Vice Pavilion Master looked around at our group, a bitter smile on his face, and continued.

"We can't afford to lose the Two Dragons, One Phoenix, and even One Flower in a place like this. Aren’t you all the future of the murim? We’ll draw their attention, so please survive and meet us again at the Murim Alliance. Now! Everyone, follow me!"

"Yes, Vice Pavilion Master!"

"Let’s go!"

Then, taking five martial artists under his command, he moved forward again and shouted once more.

"Everyone, carve out a blood path! You all stay here for now, then head south."

'South? Not north?'

The direction we needed to flee was north, toward Yunnan. But the Vice Pavilion Master told us to head south instead.

As I made a confused expression, Hwa-eun grabbed my wrist and said,

"It’s to catch the enemy off guard. The Blood Cult bastards must be expecting us to flee north toward Yunnan, so they’ve probably concentrated their forces there. That’s why the Vice Pavilion Master is heading north, to draw attention. And while they’re focused on him, we’re to slip away to the south."

'Oh, I see.'

I was impressed that she could think that far ahead in such a short moment. Following Hwa-eun, we arrived at the wolf den.

At the entrance to the wolf den, we held our breath and surveyed the surroundings. Soon, we began to hear the clashing of weapons, screams, and shouting from afar.

-Clang!

"N-north! They're in the north!"

"Aaaargh!"

"The Murim Alliance bastards are trying to break through the north!"

Just as Hwa-eun had said, the torches surrounding the area began to shift.

The torches on the southern side started thinning out, while more gathered toward the north.

As the torches began following the Vice Pavilion Master’s group northward, it happened.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over me, Hwa-eun, and Seol noona.

The sun had already set, and the light from the distance was suddenly blocked by something, casting us in darkness. It turned out to be none other than the broad back of Gue-sung hyung-nim.

In the darkness, Gue-sung hyung-nim's deep voice came through.

"I’ll take the lead, and Spear Dragon and Sword Phoenix will follow. Soryong, you follow behind them. Poisonous Flower and Miss Seol, you cover the rear."

How reassuring it was to hear that the tank would take the lead!

As the three of us nodded, Gue-sung hyung-nim’s massive body charged south like a wild bear.

Followed closely by Sword Phoenix and Spear Dragon.

-Shaaaaa.

The tall grass, grown up to our heads, was laid flat to either side as Gue-sung hyung-nim bulldozed through it, leaving a long trail behind him.

We had run perhaps twenty or thirty meters when Hyung-nim’s low voice rang out.

[Something's coming!]

-Shaaaa.

-Thud, thud.

Just as he said, the sound of grass being pushed aside came from the opposite direction, and torchlight was approaching. Hyung-nim immediately turned toward it and hurled himself toward the vanguard emerging through the grass.

"Something's coming from here... huh! Murim-!"

-Rip!

"Guhh..."

Without slowing down, Gue-sung hyung-nim’s body rammed straight into the man at the very front.

As we burst out into the already flattened grass field, what we faced was a man spraying a mist of blood from his mouth, having dropped the torch he had been holding.

The man coming at us was thrown back as if he had been hit by a truck, blood bursting from him in a mist.

The torch he dropped flew up over our heads, briefly illuminating the surroundings before plunging everything back into darkness.

Around ten Blood Cult members froze in shock at the sight.

Their faces clearly showed their panic at our sudden appearance.

At the same time, Sword Phoenix and Spear Dragon, who had been hiding behind Hyung-nim’s large frame, burst out from either side, piercing and cutting down the men in red martial outfits who had been standing to the left and right of the man who had flown back.

-Fwip!

-Slice!

It definitely felt like they had practiced this combination many times before.

The spear shot from Spear Dragon’s hand, who I had thought to be clumsy, pierced straight through one man’s neck, while Sword Phoenix’s sword glinted under the moonlight as it sliced through the throats of martial artists.

“M-Murim... Guhk!”

“Gaaah!”

“M-Murim Alliance!”

-Screech!

One of the panicked men came to his senses and tried to alert the surroundings with something like a whistle, but a sharp sound rang out, followed by a glint of silver on his forehead.

“Ugh....”

“Grugh....”

The poison needles that had flown from Hwa-eun’s hand had embedded themselves in the Blood Cult martial artists’ foreheads.

The ten or so Blood Cult members were taken care of in an instant.

Hyung-nim raised his head, scanned the area once more, then looked toward a place with no torchlight and said,

“Good! Poisonous Flower, if more of those bastards appear, I’ll count on you.”

“Yes.”

The tank blocking from the front, two melee dealers providing support.

And long-range attacks to deal with small fries.

I felt pleased with Hwa-eun's attack added to the seamless coordination of the three.

As the commotion from the battle drew nearby torches toward our direction, Hyung-nim once again began charging ahead.

***

After the first clash, similar events repeated a couple more times, and just when we thought we had broken through the encirclement.

We reached the end of the tall grass that had been reaching up to our heads.

What greeted us as we burst out of the grass was a swarm of Blood Cult members.

Under the moonlight, without even lighting torches, around a hundred Blood Cult members stood waiting for us.

Just like we had aimed to catch them off guard, they had, in turn, targeted our feint.

Hyung-nim, who had been leading the charge, halted in clear alarm.

“This is bad!”

Then, from within the Blood Cult ranks, a man stepped forward, grinning with excitement.

“Hehe, so the north was just a diversion after all? Well, well, we’ve got three fine-looking women here. This might turn out to be fun.”

Only for a moment were we caught off guard by the fact that they seemed to have been waiting for us.

But rage quickly welled up when I saw the bastard licking his lips.

Because that bastard had his eyes locked on Hwa-eun.

He then continued with something that should never have been said, as if hastening his own death.

“Kill all the men and capture the women! And, hehehe... that one, I’ll take her myself.”

At those words, Hwa-eun’s face flushed with a mix of anger and shame.

And I shouted in my heart right away.

Now was the time to call Cho.

Because I knew I wouldn’t feel better until I saw that bastard’s face twisted in pain.

‘Cho! Punish these bad men for us!’

And then, in my mind, I heard Cho's voice, saying she had been waiting so long and telling us to step back.

I immediately shouted to the group.

“Hyung-nim! We have to fall back! She’s coming!”

“Coming!?”

Perhaps at the mention of Cho, everyone turned pale and took a few steps back, and even the bastard who had been leering at Hwa-eun stepped back with the other Blood Cult members in alarm.

But seeing that nothing changed in the surroundings, the bastard smirked and said,

“Well, well, falling for the bluff of a brat. I don’t know who the fourth one is that joined you, but no one’s coming to save you.

All nine Murim Alliance squads, aside from you fools who went into the Forbidden Ground, are probably having their blood drained in the underground prison right about now.”

"That, that can't be!"

“We caught three of them at first, and they spilled everything like babies. Hahaha.”

At the words that all of the Murim Alliance’s reconnaissance teams had been captured by the Blood Cult bastards, Sword Phoenix’s eyes shot open.

And just as the one who seemed to be the Blood Cult’s leader slightly raised his hand to issue the order to attack his subordinates.

-Tuk.

The sound of shouting Blood Cult bastards and clashing weapons echoed from afar.

Cutting through that noise came a distinct sound of something falling from the gloved hand of the man.

-Tuk. Tuk tuk. Thud thud thud.

Then, as if it was raining only on the area where the bastards were standing, droplets began to fall from the sky.

“Rain?”

The bastard looked up at the sky, as if wondering whether it was really raining, but then his face began to contort.

Not just his expression, but his face literally started to deform.

No, melt might be the better word.

“Aaaaagh!”

As the droplets struck them, the bastards clutched their heads and collapsed, followed by a wave of self-reflection?

As if holding some group repentance, the other surrounding Blood Cultists also crouched down and clutched their heads.

"Ahhhhh!"

"Aaaahhhhh!"

The eerie screams of a hundred men crying out in agony filled the area.

-Thud!

-Tsururururu!

As Cho landed between the bastards and us, letting out a furious sound, the bastards gurgled and melted as if struck by killing intent itself.

‘C-crazy.’

Even I, who had summoned Cho, couldn’t believe it and stared wide-eyed in shock. Next to me, Hwa-eun muttered in a dazed voice.

“One of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures... the king of all centipedes... the ultimate disaster said to fly through the sky and rain down death mist and rain, Flying Celestial Centipede.”

M-my grandfather said that… S-so this is what ‘death rain’ meant….”

What was strange was that the grass, the clothing of the bastards, and their weapons were untouched, but only their bodies had melted.

It clearly felt like something that did not exist in the natural world.

Because none of the poisons I knew fell into a category like this.

After confirming all the bastards had collapsed, Cho came over to me and nudged her head against me as if asking to be praised for doing well.

-Tsurur.

With a blank expression, I stroked Cho’s head and said,

“Cho, you mustn’t drool on Dad or Mom, okay?”

-Tsrrt?

Grandfather had said that I’d be fine because I had absorbed Cho’s poison in me, but honestly, I was still scared.

Tang sect’s poison techniques provide resistance to the poisons one has absorbed, but if Cho drooled even a single drop, I felt like it would burn a hole right through me.

Because that wasn’t poison, it was something else entirely.

***

“W-what is this…?”

Blood Wind Flying Serpent Mei Chougui, an Elder of the Blood Cult, stared blankly at the remnants of a hundred martial artists, only their weapons and clothes left behind.

He had never expected such losses when all they were doing was capturing six Murim Alliance members and a few brats.

Even though the north side under his control had fallen prey to the new Energy Scattering Poison the Alliance had devised, only three low-level warriors had been injured.

And this… a complete annihilation in an instant, was simply beyond understanding.

Stationed here had been Blood Ghost Division Leader Gu Pungso and a full hundred of the Blood Ghost Division.

Though he was particularly skilled in tracking, Gu Pungso was still among the top five of the eight martial division leader of the Blood Cult.

And now, a hundred out of his three hundred men had disappeared just like that.

“Haven't those guys arrived yet?"

“No, Elder.”

"Do they intend to break our agreement!"

As Mei Chougui fumed, cursing the ones who hadn’t shown up yet.

A chilling voice rang out from behind.

"Surely, that couldn't be the case, could it?"

Startled, Mei Chougui stepped back and turned around to see a pale-faced woman wearing a long, dark robe smiling at him.

He hadn’t even noticed her approach, and now she was at his back.

Mei Chougui shouted in anger.

“N-never stand behind me again!”

The woman replied with a bright smile.

“I shall keep that in mind.”

The woman before him belonged to the force that had clashed with the Blood Cult at the border of the Great Viet Kingdom when they retreated from the Central Plains and settled here.

While expanding their power by devouring small villages along the border, they had encountered a certain force. At the time, having not yet recovered from the losses suffered in the Central Plains, they had blindly rushed in without knowing better, and in turn, suffered significant damage at the hands of those people.

However, though they were initially hostile, once they realized that those people also harbored deep resentment toward the Central Plains, they proposed an alliance.

They called themselves the Five Poisons Lords.

Later, it was revealed that they were the descendants of the Five Poisons Sect.

-Whoosh!

Still irritated by the situation that felt like he was being toyed with, Mei Chougui infused internal energy into the poison vial in his chest and launched it, but the woman gently caught it.

The woman who had caught the poison vial let a drop of the poison inside fall onto her fingertip, then tasted it with her lips.

Then, smiling as expected, she replied.

“Mmm... As I thought, it's the poison of the Tiger Keelback. Didn’t we tell you? That martial art has a weakness.”

“Damn it, so it’s been exposed after all?”

Just as she had warned once before yes, it was indeed the poison of the Tiger Keelback.

They had kept the fact that there was no antidote secret from the other Elders, except for the Great Elder, the Priestess, and himself. But now, it was clear those Central Plains bastards had figured out the weakness.

Feeling that it would be hard to infiltrate the Central Plains again, Mei Chougui wore a troubled expression.

Then, another poison vial flew toward him.

"What is this! Huh? What is this?"

Thinking it was another prank, Mei Chougui shouted in anger, but it wasn’t the same poison vial he had thrown, it was a different one.

When he caught it and questioned her, the woman replied with a smiling face.

“The antidote to the Tiger Keelback’s poison.”

“What!? Y-you mean it’s complete!?”

“Of course. We keep our promises. Unlike some others.”

She was probably referring to that bastard Blood Eagle Dagger Claws Gu Cheon-ak, who had attacked the Tang Family.

Apparently, preparations for the Tang Family assault had been underway on that side, but that bastard had ruined everything.

Though reluctant, Mei Chougui offered an apology.

If they had truly completed the antidote, then he had every reason to bow his head.

“We already apologized for that, didn’t we? We had no idea how that bastard would act either.”

“Well, let’s leave it at that then. But why did you call for me?”

“Ah, right. Take a look at this. It looks like poison, but I’ve no idea what it is.”

As Mei Chougui stepped aside and revealed the melted ground, it happened.

The woman’s eyes widened, and she dropped to the ground, crawling.

And shortly after, she cried out in astonishment, as if she had discovered something.

“First Poison Lord! Still young, but clearly First Poison Lord! Has heaven finally heard the wish of us Five Poisons Lords? Call the Toad Unit! Bring out Gweong!”

At her command, figures sprang up from around them, bowed low, then immediately shot off into the distance.