Chapter 637
It was the first time.
The first time I had crossed such a long and wide swamp.
The first time I had to breathe in Poison Fog as if it were fresh air while fighting creatures that weren’t even human.
Shaaak! A sudden sound came from behind. I smoothly twisted my body and struck down with a sharp hand blade.
Slash!
Its body was easily over three jang long.
But sharp fangs and hide as thick as iron armor weren’t enough to withstand the force gathered in my strike.
Like something out of an Amazon documentary, a massive crocodile split in two and crashed into the darkened water below.
Splash!
A foul stench and the metallic scent of blood burst out. For a moment, my stomach turned, but it wasn’t as bad as expected.
I’d long since been drenched in foul-smelling slime and blood worse than filth itself.
‘What is this, fighting poison with poison?’
Southern Barbarian living tip: if the stench bothers you, get used to something even worse.
“…Damn it.”
I felt a wave of emptiness, but this wretched Poison-Blooded Land didn’t allow even a brief moment of reflection.
Shriik!
From the swamp, a snake shot at my neck like an arrow. Just as it opened its maw wide to sink its black, venomous fangs into my thigh—
Whack!
Fingers as thick as branches snapped its triangular head apart.
Undeniable death. Grabbing the limp tail, the Beast Miao King flung the corpse back into the swamp and spoke sternly.
“Don’ relax.”
“…What?”
“Be careful.”
“…Ah. Yes.”
In other words, don’t let down your guard. Be careful. Something like that.
The Southern Barbarian’s greatest warrior, well past eighty years of age, now sounded clumsier than an eight-year-old child because of the massive Poison-Avoiding Bead stuffed in his mouth.
“En’ of de swam’.”
That pronunciation sounded way too familiar.
I wanted to ask if he was from Gyeongsang Province but swallowed the question. It wasn’t the time, and more importantly, the swamp was indeed ending.
But that didn’t mean things were improving.
‘Quest window, open.’ Ding.
[Don’t Cross That Swamp, Dude.]
You have entered the Poison-Blooded Land.
This was the hidden base of the old Wudu Clan. Here lived creatures unknown to the world.
A cursed land filled with poisoned mist and the spirits of the dead.
What awaits beyond is something no one can tell you. You can only see and confirm it with your own eyes.
Grade: Transcendent
Restriction: Jin Taekyung
Mission: ???
Reward: ???
Failure: Death
‘No matter how many times I read it, it’s ridiculous.’
It had been a long time since I’d seen such a simple quest window. No clear mission, no clear reward—just certain death upon failure.
But thinking about it, it had always been like this. Whether in modern Gates or in Murim.
‘Win and live, lose and die.’
A simple yet cruel logic.
Hunters and martial artists alike always lived with one foot in the underworld.
And as always, I had no intention of dying this time either.
Splash.
The swamp ended, and softer ground appeared. With every step I took alongside the Beast Miao King, the foul slime and blood dripping from us turned the dark earth an even deeper black.
“Vile.”
Spitting out his Poison-Avoiding Bead, he glanced around.
“This is the second worst place I’ve ever seen.”
“And the first?”
“The Great War of Justice and Evil. Everywhere I looked was hell itself.”
If he compared it to the war where hundreds of thousands slaughtered each other, then no further explanation was needed to understand what kind of place the Poison-Blooded Land was.
Swoooosh.
Poison Fog rolled in, covering the blackened earth. The Beast Miao King swallowed a groan at the eerie sight.
“Damn it. If I’d known, I would have trained in poison arts as a child.”
“Well, you didn’t know. That’s why you didn’t.”
He nodded regretfully.
“True. I thought my martial arts alone were enough. That’s why I never learned beast taming like others did.”
“Fair point. Why learn what you don’t need?”
For some reason, I felt a kinship.
In the modern world, there were math dropouts and English dropouts. Here, in the South, there were poison dropouts and beast dropouts. For the record, I’d dropped all subjects during the college entrance exam.
“I thought all Southerners trained in poison arts.”
“If that were true, wouldn’t it be the Southern Poison Palace, not the Southern Beast Palace?”
“…Oh.”
“That’s just the Central Plains’ prejudice. True, poison is easy to encounter here. But most tribes deal with beasts. And after the Wudu Clan’s rise, people avoided poison even more. Our palace’s heirloom proves it.”
“…Excuse me, what?”
I froze. He frowned.
“…Why?”
“What you just said.”
“That we shunned poison? We had no choice, after suffering terrible losses.”
“No, not that. The heirloom.”
“Ah. That’s what you meant. I wondered.”
He said it casually, but to me, it wasn’t something I could just brush aside.
“The Southern Beast Palace had an heirloom?”
“Any established power has one. In the Central Plains, it’s even more common.”
Not wrong. Even small martial halls hung old swords on the wall and called them heirlooms.
But among them, there were true heirlooms.
Like the Jade Buddha Staff of Shaolin, passed down for over a thousand years.
And Dark Heaven was after those heirlooms, even massacring Shaolin in the infamous Shaolin Blood Massacre.
‘And now the Southern Beast Palace also had one?’
As far as I knew, the palace had existed for over three hundred years. It had been born from the struggles against the Wudu Clan and had become the Southern ruler after long battles.
It wouldn’t be strange for them to have one.
But the real problem was hearing this only now.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Of course not. It disappeared shortly after the palace was founded.”
“…What?”
“Or maybe it never existed. The Beast King Stone was only ever a legend passed down to Palace Masters. No one even knows if it was real.”
“The Beast King Stone… that name sounds ominous.”
He nodded.
“As I said, it’s like a legend. Said to make all beasts obey. The first Palace Master wielded it. But after his battle with the Wudu Clan’s founder, where both were gravely wounded, it vanished.”
A stone that could command all beasts? That was a legend if I’d ever heard one.
And it had been passed down by word of mouth for centuries.
If I started now, in a few hundred years I could claim I’d been born from an egg.
‘Still, the Beast King Stone might be worth keeping in mind. But it’s more likely that the Southern Demon Empress’s goal is creating a Gate in the South, rather than chasing after a questionable legend.’
“But tell me something.”
“…Yes?”
He hesitated, glancing at me and the Poison Fog.
“Do you… have another one of those?”
By “that,” he meant the Myriad Poisons Ring.
I shook my head firmly.
“No.”
“Then at least let me borrow—”
“Hey, Yal Mok. Don’t talk nonsense. Just keep your Poison-Avoiding Bead in your mouth.”
“…What did you just call me?”
“Ah, it slipped. If you don’t want to get poisoned, just hold onto your bead.”
He glared at me but silently bit down on the bead.
Even as a lesser-ranked member of the Ten Kings, he was still a master. With his lofty realm and vast qi, poison wouldn’t take him easily—but prevention was better than cure.
‘A High-Grade Poison-Avoiding Bead should block most of it.’
Of course, I had no worries with the Myriad Poisons Ring of the Sichuan Tang Clan on my hand.
The Beast Miao King looked at me with envy before stepping into the Poison Fog.
Step.
His footsteps echoed unusually loud. The dense, green mist blanketed everything, so thick that visibility was nearly zero. Strangely, it was utterly silent.
‘As if something’s watching its prey.’
It was bizarre. I could feel something’s gaze from within the mist, yet it was quieter than when we were in the swamp.
And I wasn’t the only one who felt it.
* Ten jang ahead. Northwest bush. Do you sense it?
A whisper of sound transmission pierced my ear. I nodded slightly.
* By the rock?
* Yes. Something’s there. Could it be…
I thought of the Wraith of Mount Aino. That ghostly presence and lightning-fast movement.
* It’s not him. Even if it were, we couldn’t catch him from this distance.
* That depends.
At the same time, the Beast Miao King thrust out his palm like lightning.
Boom!
Compressed air exploded. The mist tore apart, and storm-like force swept through the bushes.
And then—
“Guh!”
A scream. Not of a beast, but unmistakably human.
In that instant, the Beast Miao King and I locked eyes and charged toward the source like lightning.
Screeeech!
As we tore through the mist, a flood of thoughts surged in my mind.
And the first word that came to me was Dark Heaven.
‘It’s them.’
Why else would people be in this forbidden Poison-Blooded Land?
Something sharp stabbed through my entire being. My heart pounded as I closed the distance.
And when I saw the owner of that scream burst from the bushes, I let out a dazed voice.
“What the…?”
Dried, dark blood smeared on his lips. Wide, lifeless eyes. It was undeniably a human corpse.
And his attire was all too familiar.
“…Why is a warrior of the White Tribe here?”
The Beast Miao King’s hollow voice held the same disbelief. The corpse had been a White Tribe warrior.
Clad in pure white garb like funeral clothes, his body was bound tight by something sticky and strong.
Not rope. Threads?
Before we could comprehend it, our eyes widened at the sudden sound.
Rustle. Shhhk.
When had they gathered? From where had they hidden?
Countless presences approached from every direction. I felt a shadow above and raised my head—
Rustle.
From enormous trees, too ancient to guess their age, they descended like ghosts.
Black bodies. Countless legs. Bristling hair.
At the sight, the Beast Miao King muttered in a pained groan.
“…The Thousand-Year Spider. The monster of the Poison-Blooded Land has appeared.”