Sword God Reborn

Chapter 98 : The River Bandits of the Yangtze River.

"Th-Th-Th-Th-You, who are you?"

The physician's face turned pale. It was because Cheon Mubaeck had unsparingly let out his momentum. The Flying Sword Sect warrior next to him was also trembling with a pale face, so how could a mere physician endure it?

He quickly turned his head and looked at the Flying Sword Sect warrior.

"H-Hey, Jin-gong. Help me."

But the warrior called Jin-gong could not even move.

On the contrary, the one who was relatively free in this place was the physician.

The crudely learned cultivation method had not allowed him to properly feel Cheon Mubaeck's greatness.

On the other hand, Jin-gong, who had properly learned martial arts, felt more keenly what Cheon Mubaeck's momentum was, and to what extent. The physician was in a situation where he could at least speak because he was ignorant of internal energy. Jin-gong could not even dare to move.

Cheon Mubaeck's low voice rang like thunder in the ears of the pale-faced physician.

"Crude authority, crude knowledge, crude position, if you want to use them, at least develop your eyes."

"Th-Th-I, I am the Su-seon-ui who studied at The Odorless Medical Hall! I-I am a member of the Flying Sword Sect!"

"Heo. Really, crude things believe in their worthless authority and act up."

Cheon Mubaeck, on the contrary, was so dumbfounded that he felt self-pity for getting angry at a guy like this, and his energy drained away.

Crude authority and power.

A fool who believes only in that and thinks the world revolves around him.

There was no more useless waste of mental energy than expressing anger at a guy like this.

"Y-You, I don't know who you are, but please leave. If I tell the Flying Sword Sect, you won't be able to hold your head up in this Chongqing..."

Cheon Mubaeck waved his hand as if there was nothing more to see.

Paak!

With a cheerful sound, the Su-seon-ui waved his hands in the air a few times and then collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

Along with his pants that were turning yellow.

* * *

The Su-seon-ui barely awakened his faintly returning consciousness.

His head was dizzy.

When he opened his eyes and looked around, it was the room of the Flying Sword Sect where he was staying.

The noble scent of medicinal herbs that filled the room.

But in that scent, some strange smell was mixed.

A strangely unpleasant smell.

The Su-seon-ui's face crumpled as he sniffed, wondering what that smell was.

"Did the outhouse collapse or something? Where is this smell of urine coming from so strongly... huh?"

The one who had been sniffing realized that the smell of urine was coming from himself and quickly threw off the blanket.

"Th-Th-Crazy."

He was 36 years old.

He had wet the bed. He let out a sigh of lament at this absurd situation. Then, he quickly removed the blanket and changed his clothes, lest someone see. But the smell of urine did not disappear, so he opened the door and quickly boiled a decoction. If it was the terrible smell of the decoction, this much smell of urine would be covered.

"Are you awake?"

It was then.

A voice that was old but had strength was heard from outside the room.

The Su-seon-ui knew who this voice belonged to.

It was the absolute ruler of the Flying Sword Sect, Gwak Yong.

Only then did the Su-seon-ui recall why he had visited the ruins of the Seopjin-mun. Hadn't Gwak Yong personally ordered it? To find out as much as possible what kind of poison it was and who the culprit was.

But at that moment, what had happened came to his mind.

Cheon Mubaeck's momentum that had wrapped around his whole body.

The thunderous voice that had been stuck in his ears.

The terrible eyes that had glared at him as he had approached.

An enormous fear filled his head. In an instant, his eyes trembled and his whole body trembled.

At that moment, Gwak Yong kicked open the door.

"Su-seon-ui, did you find out what kind of poison it is... eum?"

Gwak Yong's face crumpled severely.

Because the sight of the Su-seon-ui, who had buried his face in the floor and was making a puddle with his yellow urine, came into his eyes.

"What on earth..."

Although he had heard that he had been hit by Cheon Mubaeck, what was this strange sight?

A sigh escaped Gwak Yong's lips.

* * *

"Aren't you being too merciful to him?"

Neung-heo muttered in a sullen voice.

"What?"

"That Su-seon-ui or spoon or whatever. Is that all, just hitting him once and knocking him out? You have to give him a proper lesson."

"He wet himself. How shameful would that be? A grown adult."

"But looking at what he did, phew..."

Neung-heo glanced at Chae Ga-ryeong, who was smelling the ashes with a serious expression and even tasting them with her tongue.

"I should have just killed him."

"It's fine. Anyway, that guy will have a hard time for a while."

"A hard time?"

"I've released one of his blood points."

"Pardon?"

"Now he'll have to walk around with a cloth padded inside and change it frequently. Because he can't control it."

"...Wow."

Neung-heo trembled as if he had gotten goosebumps.

"Phew, he won't be able to wander around anywhere."

"The Flying Sword Sect warrior, Jin-gong, will report what happened here, so he won't be able to stay in the Flying Sword Sect either. He'll be kicked out. And where would they use a physician who wets himself?"

"Heo... well. You're cruel."

"Well, but since he's a physician, he'll be able to treat himself by performing acupuncture."

"..."

Neung-heo shut his mouth.

It would be better to just get beaten to a pulp and end it cleanly.

What kind of shame was that?

'It's better to get hit. It's better to get hit. Yes.'

Then Neung-heo suddenly got goosebumps.

'I'm crazy. I'm thinking of getting hit so naturally now.'

To think of getting hit by a guy who was his son's or nephew's age, or at best, a younger brother with a large age gap, as a natural constant...

Neung-heo was inwardly lamenting his own situation.

"Excuse me, Young Master Cheon."

At that moment, Chae Ga-ryeong raised her head with a serious face.

Since Cheon Mubaeck was about two hand spans taller, Chae Ga-ryeong had no choice but to look up at Cheon Mubaeck every time.

"Why."

"I think I've found it."

At those words, the lamenting Neung-heo stood up.

"You found it, miss? Really?"

"Yes. I found it. Sir. But..."

Chae Ga-ryeong trailed off. She had a thoughtful expression. Cheon Mubaeck waited without pressing her.

Chae Ga-ryeong, who seemed to have made a decision, said with a hardened face.

"It's stone poison."

"Stone poison?"

It was a name that Cheon Mubaeck had heard for the first time. In other words, it meant a poison that had not appeared until 40 years ago.

When Cheon Mubaeck waited for her to explain, Chae Ga-ryeong said right away.

"When bats and other animals that live in old caves defecate, it accumulates and hardens into stone."

"The poison came from there?"

"No. To be precise, it's made from the accumulation of the feces of the Clear-Blood Bat."

"The Clear-Blood Bat."

Cheon Mubaeck nodded his head.

It was named the Clear-Blood Bat because its blood was blue, but the problem was that the blood had a terrible toxicity.

How could a mere creature have the nickname of the 'Poison King'?

It was a very rare creature, and Cheon Mubaeck had also seen it briefly in Yunnan in the very distant past.

"There is a stone poison that is made by processing the toxicity extracted from the stone that has been accumulated and hardened with the poisonous qi of the Clear-Blood Bat for a long time."

"It was made not long ago."

"Yes. As far as I know, it first appeared 20 years ago."

Then Cheon Mubaeck had no choice but to not know.

Because it was a poison that had been made relatively recently.

"Because its toxicity is so strong, it's hard to handle. No, there are almost no people in the Central Plains who know about it. Because it has never been actually used."

Cheon Mubaeck tilted his head at that story.

Then how did Chae Ga-ryeong know?

And just by smelling the faint poisonous qi that had been burned by the fire, and by tasting it a little.

Chae Ga-ryeong let out a deep sigh.

"Because my master made it. The Vitality Physician."

Her pupils trembled slightly.

* * *

The Vitality Physician, Tang Jun-pa.

He was a physician who had taught toxicology and pharmacology at The Odorless Medical Hall, and who had studied under the Medicine Immortal when he was young.

On top of that, he was a benefactor who had recognized Chae Ga-ryeong's talent and had brought her into the medical hall, breaking the rules of The Odorless Medical Hall.

As his name suggests, he was from the Sichuan Tang family. To be precise, he was from a distant branch, not the main family, but in any case, since he was from the Tang family, he was well-versed in poison.

"Is that so?"

Sichuan was relatively close to Yunnan, and the Clear-Blood Bat could live there.

Since he was from there, he could have seen the Clear-Blood Bat and have created a poison called stone poison.

"My master was well-versed in poison, but as his title suggests, he was a person who used poison as medicine."

There is a saying that poison and medicine are a hair's breadth apart.

But although it was easy to say, to use poison like medicine and to use medicine like poison was a really difficult thing.

One had to be well-versed in both fields, and the skill of the person who handled it also had to be extraordinary.

The Vitality Physician, Tang Jun-pa, was one of such people.

A title that was given because he revived a person's vitality by using poison like medicine.

"Even such a master could not find a way to use this stone poison as medicine. He judged that it was impossible unless one was a poison person with poison flowing instead of blood."

"So?"

"He completely sealed the stone poison. Saying that he would learn more and research it later."

"But that poison was used here now?"

Chae Ga-ryeong's face hardened rapidly.

"Yes. It's unmistakable. It's stone poison. Because it's a poison that cannot be completely burned even by a fire."

Cheon Mubaeck narrowed his eyes.

"Who knows about the stone poison?"

"At least when my master left The Odorless Medical Hall, and when I was kicked out, it was only me and my master."

"..."

Then what conclusion could be drawn? Cheon Mubaeck looked at Chae Ga-ryeong's face, which was filled with all sorts of emotions. It was clear that she was having a hard time admitting it even as she was saying it.

Chae Ga-ryeong had not annihilated this place.

Then who was it?

"My master did this..."

It could only be Tang Jun-pa.

Cheon Mubaeck, to Chae Ga-ryeong, who was so pale that she looked like she would collapse, asked a question that seemed rather cruel.

"Tang Jun-pa, where is he?"

"That... I heard that he returned to Sichuan, went to Yunnan, or even went to Tibet, but... I also heard that he was captured by river bandits and is working as a physician there."

"River bandits..."

Cheon Mubae-ck let out a hollow laugh.

The river bandits of the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River Waterway Alliance.

Cheon Mubaeck's brow narrowed.

"Come to think of it, the Yangtze River also flows through this Chongqing, right?"

Chongqing had many high plateaus, and the Jialing River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, passed through the city.

So sometimes, groups of river bandits would appear here and cause trouble, but since there was the Red Dragon Faction and the Flying Sword Sect, they could not be very active.

But it was a clear fact that there was a waterway fortress in the Jialing River, a tributary of the Yangtze River.

Cheon Mubaeck looked at Chae Ga-ryeong and clicked his tongue inwardly.

What if it was true that Tang Jun-pa was at the Yangtze River Waterway Fortress?

And what if the Blood Ghost Valley had cooperated with the waterway fortress, just as they had contacted the Red Dragon Faction?

Weren't the river bandits of the Yangtze River also evil guys of the unorthodox sects, no less than the Red Dragon Faction?

They were also murderers who had no hesitation in committing such a bloodbath.

Of course, it didn't seem like Tang Jun-pa was a person who would spread poison just because he was told to.

But in the midst of being presumed to be one of the culprits who had caused the bloodbath in the orthodox sects, like the Ho-seon-ja, what was the big deal?

'How coincidental.'

Tang Jun-pa, who had been captured by the river bandits of the Yangtze River. And the poison that had caused the bloodbath was Tang Jun-pa's poison, and a tributary of the Yangtze River flows nearby.

Isn't it so coincidental?

'But the tail is still being caught.'

Cheon Mubaeck grinned.

It didn't matter if it was a very small clue, a small tail.

'I'll catch it and pull the body along.'

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes flashed.

"Neung-heo."

"...My lord, please don't say what I'm thinking."

Neung-heo, who had felt something from the way the situation was going, made a desperate expression.

Of course, Cheon Mubaeck did not care at all.

"Do you get seasick?"

"...Will you let me off if I say I do?"

"No."

"Damn it. I don't."

"Then let's go. Let's go have some fun on a boat with the river bandits on the Yangtze River.”

(End of Chapter)