Chapter 106 : Poison Palace
"It is now."
As my low voice fell, those waiting beyond the west wall of the Poison Palace moved in perfect order.
Thanks to the Lion's Roar of Jang Il-jae, Seol Ye-rin, and Maeng Ho-seong that resonated from the eastern main gate, the attention inside the Poison Palace was completely focused in that direction.
"The Beast Palace Lord is alive! How can this be!"
"Even the Diancang Sect Leader is here? Report to the Palace Lord imdiately!"
The confused voices from inside the Poison Palace reached all the way to the western wall.
I wore a cynical smile on my lips.
-Kukuku, Making a Noise in the East while Attacking the West... It is a very standard thod.
-Still, please be careful.
It was just as the Sword Venerable and the Cold Snow Demon Queen said.
I looked back and sent a hand signal.
"Mu-myeong, open the path."
"Leave it to ."
Mu-myeong took a handful of black powder from his bosom and scattered it into the air.
As the invisible poison barrier protecting the western wall of the Poison Palace touched the black powder, it lted away with a sizzling sound.
It was an antidote powder containing the essence of the Ten Thousand Heavens Poison Hand.
Mu-myeong had been learning the Ten Thousand Heavens Poison Hand quite well in the anti.
"Let's go."
I kicked off the wall and climbed up first.
Baek Mu-yong, the Small Snow Squad mbers, and the elite disciples of the Diancang Sect followed soundlessly behind .
As soon as we crossed the wall, what unfolded before my eyes was the inner garden of the Poison Palace, vibrating with the sll of bizarre herbs and blood.
"Who is it!"
Three poison n guards patrolling the western garden discovered us and rushed in.
However, before their voices could even escape their mouths,
Swish! Thud!
Yu So-dong's movent arts and Wi Ji-yeong's flying dagger accurately pierced the guards' acupoints.
The poison n collapsed to the ground without leaving even a shred of a scream.
"Master Hyeokryeon, do we go straight to the inner hall like this?"
Ok In-gi, a first-generation disciple of the Diancang Sect, asked while gripping his sword hilt.
I shook my head and pointed to the passage leading underground.
"No. Palace Lord Maeng said that the guy nad 'Bi Han' and the Blood Poison Demon n are near the underground prison. We must blockade the entrance before they co out."
"We, the Beast Palace Beast n, will handle that!"
The Beast n, led by Maeng Cheol, stepped forward baring their teeth.
Hatred for the traitor Bi Han and the Poison Palace was boiling in their eyes.
It was then.
"R-Raid!"
I saw the poison n guarding the Poison Palace trying to throw poison and flee.
Pishuk-
A fired fine needle accurately embedded itself in a poison man's neck.
At that mont.
"The Palace Lord was right when he said to deploy imdiately if a disturbance arose anywhere."
A low and bizarre voice flowed out from the entrance of the underground passage.
Slither, a man walked out from the shadows.
He was wearing the attire of the Beast Palace, but his skin was pale like a corpse, and ominous blood-colored tattoos were wriggling like a pulse all over his body.
His eyes had already lost focus, and only red madness lingered in them.
He was a Beast Man.
And the fact that there was a Beast Man on the Poison Palace's side ant...
'That guy is...'
"Bi Han...!"
It seed he was the one who fed the parasite to the Beast Palace Lord.
Maeng Cheol let out a beast-like roar and sprang forward.
"You traitorous bastard! How dare you do that to the Palace Lord!"
Bi Han scattered poison.
At that, Maeng Cheol was forced to step backward again with the sa montum he had used to spring forward.
"I heard Palace Lord Maeng's voice from the main gate; how did you cure him?"
Bi Han's gaze rested on .
Bi Han sniffed his nose and then tilted his head in a bizarre manner.
"This sll is... You have also learned Poison Art!"
Bi Han's fingernails grew abnormally long and began to be frosted with blood-colored true qi.
That energy was not simply the poisonous qi of the Poison Palace.
It was the fishy and ominous bloody qi unique to the Blood Cult that I had felt countless tis.
***
Bi Han shuddered at the heterogeneous energy brushing past the bridge of his nose.
It was not the energy of a simple martial artist. It was not that stuffy and clean Inner Qi possessed by the Orthodox Factions of the Central Plains.
It was a scent of darkness deeper and thicker than the rotten puddles at the bottom of the Poison Beast Valley. And a hot heat pulsating within it.
'It is this guy.'
The variable that Palace Lord Sa Man-so spoke of.
Bi Han instinctively realized that the man in black robes right before his eyes was the one who burned away Maeng Ho-seong's Life Parasite and reawakened the dying lion.
"Maeng Cheol, I will handle that guy."
"But... You guys clear the path. This battle ends if we just catch the Poison Palace Lord."
The Small Snow Squad, the Diancang Sect, and the Beast Palace all knew that my words were correct.
"...Understood."
"What are you muttering about!"
Bi Han tilted his neck bizarrely and took a step forward.
Wherever his footsteps touched, the grass on the ground burned dark red and gave off a thick stench of blood.
-The secret arts of the Blood Cult have completely lted into his body. They twisted the human ridians to forcibly amplify the bloody qi.
The Cold Snow Demon Queen's voice rang through my mind.
Bi Han licked the blood-colored fingernails that had sprouted over ten centiters from his fingertips and emitted a red glint from his eyes.
"The poison of the Poison Palace and the bloody qi of the Blood Cult have beco one inside my body. I am no longer a lowly Beast Man of the Beast Palace!"
Bi Han's figure beca blurry.
Shooaaak!
It was closer to a beast's leap than a movent art.
In an instant, Bi Han's fingernails, which had closed in right under my nose, tore the empty air to shreds.
Blood Snake White Tiger Fist.
The blood-colored fingernails bent like a snake and tried to wrap around my neck.
I stepped back using footwork and at the sa ti, drew up Extre Yang Qi into the Ten Thousand Heavens Poison Hand and countered with a straight punch.
Kwaaang!
Black poisonous qi and blood-colored bloody qi collided, and the stone lantern in the garden shattered into pieces.
The one pushed back was Bi Han.
He turned a sorsault backward and landed lightly, but he narrowed his eyes upon seeing the tips of his fingernails that had clashed with my fist turning black from necrosis and burning away.
The poisonous qi and bloody qi were burning.
"This fire art is...?"
"I guess you heard about a martial artist who uses fire arts?"
Madness dwelt in Bi Han's voice.
"So you were the idiot the First Young Master spoke of!"
"First Young Master?"
My eyebrows narrowed.
Bi Han crouched his whole body.
His back muscles expanded as if they would tear, and the blood vessels under his skin fluctuated.
A bizarre noise, a mixture of a beast's cry and incantations, flowed from his mouth.
Ihihihihihihihi-
"Go, Blood Poison Demon n! Make them your sacrifices!"
At Bi Han's command, monstrous people reeking of corpses poured out from the underground passage.
They were blood n modified by the Blood Cult's technology, who had already lost human reason and only flashed blood-colored glints from their eyes.
"No!"
Maeng Cheol wailed after seeing the faces of those blood n.
"How dare you! How dare you do this to our kin!!"
It was because so of the blood n clearly appeared to be Miao People and Beast n.
***
At that ti.
The main gate of the Poison Palace, the massive iron gate, crumpled inward.
Bang! Kwakwakwang!
The fortress where thousands of poison n stayed vibrated solely from the energy emitted by just three people.
The first one to walk out amidst the thick dust was a woman wearing a veil glowing with blue light, Seol Ye-rin.
"Block them!"
The poison n of the Poison Palace poured down tens of thousands of poison arrows and poison mist from atop the fortress walls.
It was a lethal poison that would lt even a decent master of the Central Plains before they could even breathe.
However, Seol Ye-rin did not blink an eye.
As Seol Ye-rin lightly reached out and stirred the empty air, the surrounding moisture instantly turned into sharp ice particles and condensed.
"Freeze."
It was an instant.
The pouring poison arrows stopped in mid-air, making cracking sounds.
No, it was not just the arrows. Even the poison mist spreading in all directions beca blue ice crystals and crashed to the ground like jewels.
"I-It all froze!"
Flustered, Gal Cheon swung his staff and sent a swarm of poisonous insects flying, but,
With every step Seol Ye-rin took, the earth turned into an icy path.
Even the sweltering climate of Namman scread, unable to overco the bitter cold of the North Sea.
The movents of the two tycoons following behind her were even more overwhelming.
"Hoho, since the Young Palace Head of the Ice Palace is clearing the path, this old man is losing face."
The Diancang Sect Leader, Jang Il-jae, flicked his finger without even drawing his sword.
Four Overflowing Finger Art.
The formless internal energy loaded into his finger beca a point and flew out, accurately striking the archers on the fortress wall.
The guards, whose acupoints were pierced without shedding a single drop of blood, fell down like fallen leaves.
"Sa Man-so! You rat-like bastard, where are you hiding!"
And amongst them was a shadow roaring like a storm, the King of Ten Thousand Beasts, Maeng Ho-seong.
Maeng Ho-seong was already like a wild beast.
His figure, which had kicked off the ground and sprang up, landed on top of the heads of the iron-clad poison n guarding the castle gate.
White Tiger Tearing Fang Fist!
Kwaang!
The bodies of the poison n, said to be harder than steel, were crushed by a single strike.
Maeng Ho-seong began to destroy every Poison Palace building in sight as he advanced unhesitatingly toward the inner hall.
The pent-up anger accumulated over several years was exploding as destructive true qi.
"...Stop! You ignorant fools!"
From deep within the inner hall, the Poison Palace Lord, Sa Man-so, finally revealed himself.
By his side stood the Black Spider Master Won Dok-myeong and the Poison Spider Master Bi Hyeol-mae, as if escorting him.
Sa Man-so's complexion was beyond pale, taking on a blue hue.
"Sa Man-so!"
Seeing the Poison Palace Lord, Sa Man-so, walking out, the Beast Palace Lord, Maeng Ho-seong, roared.
'That person is the Palace Lord of the Poison Palace.'
Seol Ye-rin realized that Hyeokryeon Yeom's party, who had gone inside, had not encountered the Poison Palace Lord.
Looking at Seol Ye-rin, Sa Man-so licked his lips.
"Seeing as you are here, it seems the Ice Palace has co as well... You are truly a beautiful woman."
Sa Man-so shot a greedy gaze at Seol Ye-rin's blue hair.
"Hoho, she is a woman who is already spoken for."
The Diancang Sect Leader, Jang Il-jae, shielded Seol Ye-rin.
"Look who it is, even the Diancang Sect of Yunnan. You have really made up your mind."
"You saw correctly. The Diancang Sect has moved to punish the poison n of the Poison Palace running rampant in Yunnan."
"The renowned Diancang of the Central Plains holding hands with the Ice Palace and the Beast Palace? Maeng Ho-seong, there was a reason you managed to survive."
"Shut up! I will cut off your head and place it on the altar of the Beast Palace!"
"Palace Lord!"
The Beast Palace Lord, Maeng Ho-seong, rushed at the Poison Palace Lord, Sa Man-so, once again.
Seol Ye-rin began to cover Maeng Ho-seong, hoping that Hyeokryeon Yeom would quickly conquer the Poison Palace and return.
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